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MEANS OF GRACE,

MEANS OF GRACE.

tnkm

DELn-EBED

UPON WEDNESDAY MORNINGS DURING THE SEASON OF LENT, 1851.

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, CLAPHAM RISE.

Rev. ROBERT BICKERSTETH, M.A.

INCUMBKNT OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, CLAPHAM RISE.

LONDON : THOMAS HATCHARD, 187 PICCADILLY.

1851.

LONDON:

rrinted by G. Barclay, Castle St. Leicester Sq.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following Lectures were composed and delivered without any view to their being committed to the press. The singular attention with which they were listened to at the time of delivery, and the numerous requests which have subsequently reached the Author for their publication, have in- duced him to let them appear in their pre- sent form. The circumstances under which they were delivered precluded a more ex- tended investigation of the important sub- jects of which they treat, but the Author

VI ADVERTISEMENT.

humbly trusts that even the imperfect sur- vey which is here given may lead some persons to set a higher, and at the same time a more Scriptural, value upon the means of grace. He commends the work to the blessing of Almighty God, who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can render the weakest instrumentality effectual to promote His glory though Jesus Christ our Lord !

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

GROWTH IN GRACE. > . '.Ayi^x l4n/f^

2 Veter, iii. 18.

PAGE

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen . . 1

LECTURE 11.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE.

Psalm cxix. 50. Thy word hath quickened me . . . .27

LECTURE III.

PRAYER.

Joh, xxi. 15. What profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? 54

viii .-■ CONTENTS.

LECTURE IV.

•4. n J V ;..•■ y ■ - '

BELTGIOUS MEDITATION.

' ' .:^ . ,, .•' > ' ■■, '

:"'' : Ps<5t?m Ixxvii. 6.

PAGE

I commiine with mine own heart : and my spirit made diligent search . . . .79

LECTURE V.

BELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE.

Tjoke, xxiv. 32.

Did not our heart bui'n within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ? . . ,106

LECTURE VI.

BArTISM.

1 Cor. ii. 14. They are spiritually discerned , .132

LECTURE VII.

THE lord's supper.

1 Cor. X. 1 6. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not the com- munion of the body of Christ ? . . .157

LECTURE I.

GROWTH IN GRACE.

2 Peter, iii. 18.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Sa^iour Jesus Cluist. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

I PURPOSE in this, and in a series of fol- lowing Lectures, to be continued upon suc- cessive Wednesday mornings during Lent, to take as the topic for consideration the several ordinary and extraordinary means of grace. I do so with earnest prayer for Divine guidance, and in simple dependence upon Divine blessing. It is my confident hope that the consideration of the subject may minister to your spiritual profit; and

)l LECTURE I.

if this be the result, it will prove to myself a source of unmingled thankfulness to the Author and Giver of all good.

In the Lectures which I propose to de- liver there will be nothing to attract the curious, but I trust there may be much to instruct the inquiring, to guide the per- plexed, to confirm the wavering, and to cheer the sorrowful. Should any come hither to be charmed by what is novel, they will be utterly disappointed. Should any come to receive food by which their spiritual life may be strengthened, it is my hope that they will find their expectations amply realised. In order that it may be so, I would entreat of you to be much in prayer that the Spirit of God would guide the lips of him who addresses you to utter that alone which may advance the Divine glory, and that He would also prepare the hearts of those that hear to receive aright the heavenly seed of God's own word.

The period of Lent upon which we this

GROWTH IN GRACE. 3

day enter has been set apart as a period for special recollection, self-examination, and self-humiliation before God. The design of such a season is clearly to promote the growth in grace of those who will apply themselves to its appointed duties. Hence, in leading your thoughts to a practical con- sideration of the various means of grace, I shall be adopting a course in perfect har- mony with the end and design of the pre- sent solemn season. May the result be to each one of us a practical growth in grace ; may we each have to reflect hereafter upon this period of Lent with thankfulness and praise, as a period during which we can trace in ourselves an evident fulfilment of the Apostle's injunction, " Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Before entering, then, minutely upon the consideration of our proposed subject, it may be well to define clearly what we un- derstand by the means of grace ; and in

4 LECTURE I.

what sense and to what extent those means are really instrumental to the spiritual wel- fare of the recipient.

Upon the term grace, in itself, there need be no difficulty. It is an expression which, in Scripture phraseology, denotes generally that help and assistance of God the Holy Spirit whereby a soul is quickened from spiritual death, made ahve unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and qualified for an abundant entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Where this grace operates, the effect will appear in a conformity of mind and disposition, of heart and life, to the example of Jesus ; the subject of such grace will be led from the renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the pur- suit after holiness : holiness will be the marked and visible fruit. There will be separation from the world, the abandon- ment of its maxims, its pleasures, its cus- toms, and its follies ; there will be the fixing of the affections upon things above ;

GROWTH IN GRACE. 0

the influence of earthly things will give place to the influence of those things which are unseen and eternal ; there will be a daily increasing consciousness of the value of that honour which comes from above, of the blessedness and the dignity of being per- mitted (were it to ever so humble an ex- tent) in any measure to advance the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom and the glory of His great Name. The subject of this grace will realise more and more the truth of the Apostle's description, — 'Tor our con- versation [or, in other words, our citizen- ship], is in heaven ;" ' heavenly things will have a more real and intense hold upon the mind. There will be a perceptible growth in assimilation to the Saviour, till at length the spiritual life of grace upon earth shall issue in the life of unclouded and eternal dorv above.

Prom the foregoing definition it will be seen at once that the work of grace is pro-

1 Philip, iii. 20.

6 LECTURE I.

gressive; and, indeed, the testimony of God's work is given with such clearness and fre- quency upon this point, as to do away en- tirely with all doubt upon the matter. Hence it is that the kingdom of heaven is com- pared by our blessed Lord to seed cast into the earth,* which by slow degrees gradually advances to the full maturity of growth. Hence Christians are resembled by the in- spired Apostle ^ to children, and to young men, and to fathers ; the several periods of natural life being used as emblems of the different stages of spiritual experience or growth.

There is such a thing, then, as growth in grace. All true believers are not of one uni- form standard ; they present, on the contrary, endless varieties of spiritual knowledge, attainment, and perfection.

I observe next, it is of the utmost im- portance to the believer that he should grow in grace ; ^. e. that he should acquire more and more of the help of the Divine Spirit,

» Mark, iv. 26. 2 1 John, ii. 12, 13.

GROWTH IN GRACE. 7

and experience more and more of the prac- tical effects of His quickening and sanctify- ing grace.

Next to the importance of ascertaining whether or not we have been in truth made the subjects of Divine grace, I know of nothing more important than to attain satis- factory evidences of om' growth or advance- ment in grace. For let it be observed, that progress in the divine life is in itself one of the surest evidences to the reality of conver- sion ; advancement in godliness is the very law and condition of real piety. Where there is no evidence of growth in grace, there is much cause for apprehension lest the evi- dences we seem to have should be unsub- stantial and deceitful. More need not be said to indicate the extreme importance of the question, whether or not we are in truth exhibiting the progress to which St. Peter alludes in the exhortation, " Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

8 LECTURE I.

The work of grace is emphatically a Divine work ; the very term itself denotes this, for grace is literally free favour exhi- bited to the guilty and the undeserving. Man cannot impart grace to another; he cannot earn or procure it for himself: grace descends from God ; like the hght which illumines our world, or the showers that water the earth, it streams only from on high, and must be ever regarded as God's gift. If this be so, then the inquiry not unnaturally arises. What is the relation of means that we can use, to the bestowment of a gift which originates entirely in the free favour of God ? The answer is simple : Although grace is the free gift of God, spon- taneously issuing from the unfathomable ocean of His sovereign mercy and love, yet God is pleased to connect the communica- tion of the gift with the use upon our part of certain prescribed means. God is not confined to those means ; the communica- tion of the blessing is not limited to the

GROWTH IN GRACE. \)

special appointed channels. To imagine that it is so is the lamentable error into which multitudes fall : just because there are cer- tain appointed methods which God has been pleased to consecrate as the means, in the faithful use whereof He ordinarily communi- cates grace, therefore, tens of hundreds fall into the mistake of magnifying those means to an inordinate importance, and of fettering the free grace of God as though it was a stream which can only run between narrow limits, and only be conveyed through the medium of certain fixed channels. I would guard you most carefully against this error, because it is an error which is remarkably insidious and remarkably prevalent at the present day. Whatever may be said re- specting the means of grace, however great may be the value to be attached to them, and however dihgent may and ought to be our use of them ; let us carefully shun the error of those who imagine either that the grace of God can only be imparted, through

10 LECTURE I.

certain channels of which we are made acquainted ; or that the communication of spiritual grace is so indissolubly connected with resort to those channels, as that never are the means employed and the blessing not obtained.

Having said thus much by way of guard- ing against a prevalent abuse, let me state more particularly what the connexion is between the use of means on man's part, and the bestowment of grace from above. Our belief upon this subject is, that God has chosen to ordain certain means, in the due employment of which He has promised to impart grace. So that if we resort to those means in faith, if we employ them in dependence upon His blessing, if we seek to use them merely as channels through which grace may be imparted, the use of such means in such a spirit will be ordina- rily followed by the communication to our souls of more and more of Divine help and blessing. We neither limit the sovereign

GROWTH IN GRACE. 11

grace of God, as though it could not be dispensed irrespective of means which men may use ; still less do we dare so to endow the channel with a kind of independence of the fountain, as to suppose that wheresoever the channel is cut the stream must necessarily flow to fill it : at the same time, believing that all grace descends from above, and believing also that God has mercifully or- dained certain means as channels for the dispensation of grace, we would resort to those means with diligence and with faith, in the confident hope that the promised bless- ing will follow the faithful employment of them. Means of grace are as the windows through which light may stream into the otherwise dark soul : except the hght stream from above, the window by itself cannot reheve the darkness ; and yet it is our business to cherish the heaven-sent com- munication by carefully preserving the channel through which it may be expected to flow.

12 LECTURE I.

And here the question arises, What are the ordinary or the extraordinary means of grace, in the use of which we may fairly expect the desired blessing ? Amongst the ordinary means of grace I enumerate these five : — 1 . The ministry of the Gospel ; 2. The study of God's word ; 3. The exer- cise of prayer; 4. The habit of self-exami- nation ; and 5. Converse with the Lord's people. The extraordinary means of grace are the two sacraments. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which Christ hath ordained, and of which our Church speaks as gene- rally necessary to salvation. To the con- sideration of these seven means of grace I propose to devote yom^ time and attention, in the order in which you have now heard them named. For the remainder of the present discourse I will advert briefly and practically to the first-named mean of grace, namely, the miniBtry of the Gospel.

Now it is not without due consideration that I have placed foremost in the hst of the

GROWTH IN GRACE. 13

means of grace, the ministry of the Gospel, or, in other words, the preaching of God's holy word. I have done so, not only be- cause preaching is to be regarded as the great instrumentality whereby it pleases God to accomplish the spread of the Gospel, the conversion of souls, and the estabhsh- ment of believers, but also because in the minds of many at the present day there is a tendency to undervalue preaching, and to give to this ordinance a secondary and subordinate importance. And yet, if we would be guided by the testimony of God's own word, if we would consult the record of historical facts with respect to the revival or the progress of true religion in every period of the world's history, we should discover that the proclamation of Divine truth has universally been — as I be- lieve it is appointed to be — the chief in- strumentahty whereby the Spirit works to convince, to convert, to sanctify, and to esta- blish souls. Preaching is not an ordinance

-^

14 LECTURE I.

confined to the Gospel institution, although its importance has increased in proportion to the immeasurably clearer and fuller intel- ligence which is unfolded by the Gospel. The preaching of God's truth began from the earhest times. Enoch, the seventh from Adam,^ as we learn by St. Jude, discharged this office. He prophesied, or in other words, preached to the men of his genera- tion the great doctrines of which the am- bassadors for Christ have still to make men- tion, the second advent of the Redeemer in glory, and the erection of that dread tribunal before which the gathered tribes of mankind must universally appear. Noah is expressly termed " a preacher of righteous- ness ;" ^ and we further know that his preach- ing was accompanied by the striving of God's own Spirit, even as the same striving invariably accompanies the faithful procla- mation of Divine truth at the present day. What were all the prophets of God in sub- 1 Jude, 14. 2 2 Peter, ii. 5.

GROWTH IN GRACE. 15

sequent ages but men who discharged the office of preachers ? Righteous King David could say of himself, — "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation : lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest." ^ Solomon is continually styled "the Preacher ;" and because he was wise, it is written, he still taught the people.^ So that preaching is an ordinance, the ex- istence whereof may be traced from the remotest periods up to the time of the Re- deemer's first advent. From the time when Christ began His personal ministry I need scarcely point out the increased dignity and importance which has attached to the ordi- nance. Our blessed Lord Himself was anointed "to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." ^ His forerunner, John the Baptist, was a preacher

^ Psalm, xl. 9. ^ Ecclesiastes, xii. 9.

3 Isaiah, Ixi. 1; and Luke, iv. 8.

16 LECTURE I.

of repentance. John, it is written, did " preach the baptism of repentance."^ The seventy whom Christ chose to send forth as pioneers of His Gospel, were to preach in every city where they came." The twelve apostles whom Christ ordained to be the heralds of His truth. He ordained, it is expressly written, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach.^ After the completion of our Saviour's personal ministry upon earth, the Apostles, to whom the commission was en- trusted to make disciples of all nations, "ceased not," as we are told, " to preach Jesus Christ."* They pleaded the express command of the Saviour for preaching to the people.^ St. Paul, writing to the Romans, exhibits the importance of this ordinance by the threefold question, — "How shall they call on Him in whom they have not beheved ? and

1 Mark, i. 4. » Mark, iii. 14.

2 Luke, X. 8, 9. * Acts, v. 42.

^ Acts, X. 42.

GROWTH IN GRACE. 17

how shall they beheve in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear T^dthout a preacher ? " ^ By the foolish- ness, that is to say, the apparent weakness and insufficiency, of preaching, we are told, it pleases God to save them that believe.^ One exhortation which St. Paul gave to Timothy was, " Preach the word, be instant in season and out of season ;"^ and the truth of God, he reminded Titus, is " manifested through preaching."* Need more be said in order to vindicate the pre-eminent import- ance of this mean of grace, unless it, in- deed, be to refer to experience in confirma- tion of this truth ; that the degree to which the cause of piety in a church has ever flou- rished has always been in proportion to the degree in which the preaching of the Gospel has been bold, and energetic, and faithful? Remove the pulpit from our churches, silence the voice of preachers in our land, and the

1 Rom. X. 14.	3 2 Tim. iv. 2.
2 1 Cor. i. 21.	4 Titus, i. 3.
	C

18 LECTURE I.

font may remain in all its integrity, and sacraments be celebrated with all the cir- cumstances that may be thought needful to ensure their efficiency, and daily prayers may be frequented with a zeal and punctuality w^orthy of the most rigid devotee, but in stifling the oral proclamation of Divine truth you will have suppressed that still small voice of God whereby in the ordinary deal- ings of grace souls are converted, back- shders reclaimed, the ignorant enlightened, and sinners saved. Experience is on the side of this testimony ; Whensoever preach- ing has decayed, whenever it has either come to be altogether neglected, or when- ever it has degenerated into a cold and life- less form, then piety has decayed also ; spiritual indifference has settled upon the church or community: whereas, on the con- trary, with the revival of this ordinance there has always been a marked revival of spiritual fervour. In the dark ages which preceded the Reformation there was no

GROWTH IN GRACE. 19^

value whatsoever put upon preaching. It was the fervid preaching of the immortal Luther and Melancthon which shook the despotism of the Papacy, and kindled in men's minds that thirst for truth which resulted in the emancipation of tens of thou- sands from the falsehood and the tyranny of the Papal Antichrist. It was the preach- ing of Latimer and Ridley, and the glorious band of our martyred Reformers, which scattered the spiritual darkness that had long brooded over England, and became the instrument in the hands of God for our introduction into the glorious liberty where- with the Gospel of Christ makes free. There have been subsequent periods in the history of our Church at which there has been a de- cay of vital religion, and a growing ignorance of Divine truth : such periods have always been marked by the absence of fervour on the part of preachers, and of value amongst the people for this divine ordinance ; and when such periods have given place to seasons of

20 LECTURE I.

revival, preaching may invariably be shown to have been the grand instrumentality em- ployed. Depend upon it, that v^^hatever the system be which undervalues the ordinance of preaching, in so far as it does this, it is hostile to the cause of real piety and the growth of true spirituality. The doctrine which unduly exalts the sacraments and other means of grace, and depreciates the value of the oral proclamation of Divine truth, such doctrine is adverse to the ad- vancement of godliness ; it is opposed to the concurrent testimony of Scripture and experience as to the method which, under God, is the most powerfully adapted to pro- duce and to sustain the spiritual life of a church, whether in its collective or individual capacity.

Having said thus much with respect to the ordinance of preaching — as an important mean of grace — I would condense into the remainder of this discourse some practical observations with respect to the design of

GROWTH IN GRACE. 21

preaching, upon the one hand, and the responsibihty which it entails upon the other.

The design of all faithful preaching is the glory of God in the salvation of souls ; The preacher has to deal with immortal spirits; with souls naturally sunk in guilt and exposed to eternal condemnation ; yet souls which have been ransomed with a Redeemer's blood, and which are capable of everlasting glory : he has one remedy, and one alone to propose, as fully commensurate with the necessities of the case : he has one theme upon which to enlarge, and that theme is Christ ; Christ in all the dignity of His divine, and in all the humiliation of His human, nature; Christ as occupying from all eternity a throne of glory; Christ as bound in the sinner's stead to a cross of shame ; Christ as obedient unto death ; Christ as rising triumphantly from the grave ; Christ as having exhibited a perfect pattern for His people to follow ; Christ as

22 LECTURE I.

interceding in heaven; Christ as the pro- mised Saviour, for whose second coming in glory the Church waits in eager hope and in firm expectation.

To warn, to exhort, to rebuke, to per- suade, to instruct men out of God's word, so that by hope or fear they may be moved to lay hold of eternal life, that so they may be saved for ever, — this is the great purpose of the Gospel ministry. In the exercise of this ministry, its just proportion must be given to every part of Christian doctrine. If any man prophesy, saith the Apostle, '* let him prophesy according to the proportion of faith ;"^ the doctrine of human depravity, of man's utter helplessness in himself to accomplish any part of his moral deliver- ance ; of the atonement which Jesus effected through dying upon the cross ; of justifica- tion the result of His meritorious obedience ; of sanctifi cation, the fruit of the divine operation of the Holy Ghost ; of faith, as

1 Rom. xii. 6.

GROWTH IN GRACE. 23

the simple means whereby we attain a per- sonal interest in the Redeemer's work ; of God's electing love in ordaining a remnant to be saved ; and of man's accountableness for the gracious overtures wherewith the Gospel meets him; of the necessity, not- withstanding we are justified simply through believing, that we should exhibit the fruits of faith in such good works as are by Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of God. These doctrines, in their bearing upon the pardon of sin and upon the con- version and salvation of the guilty, are the very sum and substance of the preacher's message ; and all the while nothing may he deliver as a matter of doctrine which cannot be clearly and satisfactorily proved from the testimony of God's own word. The commission of the preacher is, " Preach the word," neither adding to nor diminishing from the written oracles of God ; and ever- more, in the discharge of his office, should the preacher bear in mind that if he is called

24 LECTURE I.

to watch for souls, he must do it as one that has to give account.^ The design of the ministry being to save souls, his eye should be often fixed upon that solemn scene when minister and people shall together stand in the judg- ment, each to be reckoned with for their respective discharge of the responsibility which rested upon each. ^] With what views, then, ought the people to attend upon the ministry of the word ? Dear brethren, wait upon this ordinance as one of the most im- portant of all the means of grace : wait upon it in the earnest hope and believing expectation that through the mouth of His ministering servant Christ will impart to those who seek it spiritual blessing. That you may profit by the ordinance, resort to it in a spirit of prayer and of readiness to receive what message God may be pleased to send. It is your solemn responsibility, further, to believe nothing which you hear the preacher enunciate, except in so far as 1 Heb. xiii. J7.

GROWTH IN GRACE. 25

its agreement can be proved with the written word. " Beloved," saith the Apostle, " be- lieve not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God."^ The Bereans were commended, not because they took for granted every word that fell from apo- stolic lips, but because they searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so." If you find the language of the preacher to be in harmony with God's word, receive it as God's message to your soul. If you find it the contrary, it is your imperative duty to reject it at once, as erroneous and unsound. The duty of abstaining from attendance upon preaching which is calculated to mis- lead, is plain and imperative, — "Cease to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.""^ We live in days when error of all kinds is pre- valent, and when each is called for himself to examine into the grounds of his own

' 1 John, iv. 1. 2 Acts, xvii. 11.

3 Prov. xix. 27.

26 LECTURE I.

faith, and the truth of the doctrines which he hears proclaimed by others. We have one infaUible rule, and one infallible teacher : that rule is God's word, and that teacher is God's Spirit. To search into the one is our most urgent duty ; to depend upon the help of the other is our distinguishing pri- vilege. He who will cleave to the texts of Scripture in humble reliance upon Divine illumination, will not miss the way that leads to eternal life. But in order to do this, every preconceived prejudice must be laid aside ; all kind of rehance upon what this man or the other says must be aban- doned; and there must be the disposition which of old prompted Samuel to say, — " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."

LECTURE II.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE.

Psalm cxix. 50. Thy word hath quickened me.

In fulfilment of the intention which I an- nounced upon the morning of Wednesday last, I proceed, in dependence upon Divine help, to consider "the study of the word of God," as one of the most important of the several means of grace. You will bear in mind what has been already advanced concerning the subject of grace in general, and the nature of those means, in the faith- ful use of which God is ordinarily pleased to dispense grace to the believer.

28 LECTURE II.

Grace is altogether a Divine gift. It flows from the fountain of God's inex- haustible love; its effects are perceived in the quickening of souls from spiritual death, in the production of an holy conformity to the example of Christ, in the gradual pre- paration of the believer to take his place amongst the spirits of the just made per- fect, who surround the throne of God. The communications of grace upon God's part are free and unlimited : God is confined to no one channel for their bestowment. In this, as in all of His dealings, he acts ac- cording to the sovereignty of His own will. It is of the utmost importance to beware of limiting the free grace of God ; we are neither to run into the mistake of those who would inseparably connect the channel with the stream, nor yet to fall into the opposite error of those who would under- value the mean, because God can and fre- quently does act irrespectively of all means whatsoever. To attain a just conception of

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 29

this important matter, I reminded you, that while grace is to be regarded as the free and spontaneous overflowing of the Divine love, yet God has been pleased to appoint certain means as subservient to the bestow- ment and the increase of grace. They are the vehicles through which it is ordinarily imparted or augmented, and the use of them in dependence upon the Divine pro- mises, and in obedience to the Divine com- mand, is an imperative duty which devolves to every professing disciple of Jesus.

We have already considered the preaching of the Gospel as one of the ordained means, and the question which now comes before us relates to the study of God's word, as in itself one of the channels through which we may confidently anticipate the communica- tion of spiritual blessing.

There are some questions connected with this subject upon which, under other cir- cumstances, it might be needful to dilate, the examination of which at the present moment

30 LECTURE II.

I deem to be superfluous. Such, for example, is the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scrip- tures. If I do not dwell upon that doctrine, and adduce the testimonies by which it is confirmed, it is not because I undervalue its great importance, but rather because I as- sume that the truth of the doctrine is admitted by all here present. You do not need to have objections upon this head answered, nor to have arguments advanced for the maintenance of the truth that '' all Scripture is given by inspiration of God."^ You believe that the Bible is God's own word ; that the several writers whose narra- tives or epistles it contains were severally " moved by the Holy Ghost," ^ so that what they have written bears the stamp of Divine authority, and is to be received as the im- perishable record of Him who can neither change nor repent. The Bible, like its Author, is unmixed and unalterable truth ; tens of thousands in every age have assailed 1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 2 Pet. i. '21.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 31

and sought to overthrow its authority. It remains, however, in its subhnie integrity, unimpaired by all the attempts which have been made to mutilate and destroy. It is the silent yet omnipotent testimony for God and for truth upon earth ; it is a mightier witness than creation, with all its splendours, and it continually gathers fresh weight from all the changes and fluctuations of this changeful world. The march of error, the developement of new heresies or the revival of old ones, the fall of empires, the perplexities of nations ; one and all of these things go to corroborate the truth of Scripture, and to prove that the Bible is what it claims to be, the voice of the ever- living and self-existent Jehovah.

The subject immediately before us is the influence of the study of this volume to im- part grace to the soul. Before entering upon a minuter examination of this point, there is one general remark which it is im- portant that you should carefully recollect.

32 LECTURE TI.

The Bible, although it is God's word, will never reach the heart or the conscience, it will never exercise a practical influence over the walk and conversation, except as in the study thereof we continually recognise and depend upon the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God inspired every page of Scripture, and this honour is reserved to the Spirit that He Himself should be its sole true interpreter. Volumes have been written upon the exposition of the text of Scripture ; all the equipments of human reasoning and philosophy have been brought to bear upon the elucidation of the Bible ; there is scarcely a science which has not been pressed into the service to contribute its measure of aid to unfold the meaning of its page ; its various statements have exer- cised the talents of the philosopher, the geologist, the scholar, the poet and his- torian ; men of the loftiest intellect and the noblest mental endowments have found ma- terial in the Bible to occupy and to call

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 33

forth their keenest powers of research. But, after all, no man ever yet attained to the true meaning of a single doctrine of God's word, except as the Spirit of God gave him light and understanding to perceive the truth. The doctrines of salvation are hid from the comprehension of the wise and the learned according to this world, and they are revealed unto babes ;^ upon the province of revealed truth, if any man will be wise, he must " become a fool that he may be wise."- " The natural man re- ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foohshness unto Him : nei- ther can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."^ We are one and all dependent upon the teaching of this only infallible Teacher. The Spirit of God must be honoured in the interpretation of Scrip- ture; and there is no monopoly of that Spirit ; " God will give the Holy Spirit to

1 Luke, X. 25. 2 1 Cor. iii. 18.

3 1 Cor. ii. 14.

34 LECTURE II.

them that ask Him ;"^ and hence the poorest amongst us, in the humblest cottage and the meanest station in hfe, has it equally in his power to arrive at the just compre- hension of what is necessary for him to know concerning his soul's salvation, pro- vided he will implore the guidance of God's own Spirit in the study of His own word.

Let us bear this truth then practically in mind whensoever we approach the reading of Scripture. It is for want of recognising the necessity of the Spirit's teaching that num- bers read the Scriptures with no better result than that of " ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." ^ Would you gain the advantage of study and meditation upon God's word; would you break through the external shell of words and phrases, and penetrate to the inner kernel and hidden manna of Divine truth, so as to convert it into the food and nourish- • Luke, xi. 13. 2 2 Tim. iii. 7.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 35

ment of the soul ; then must you, dear brethren, begin, carry forward, and complete your study of Scripture with earnest and continued uplifting of heart for the presence of the Holy Ghost, to open your eyes that you may behold the wondrous things of the Divine law ; * to take of the things of Jesus, and reveal them unto you.^

Having said thus much upon the import- ance of the Spirit's help, I proceed to enu- merate some of the considerations, from which it appears that the study of God's word is one of the most important of the various means of grace.

That the careful perusal of Scripture should by the help of the Holy Spirit be productive of spiritual growth, may be easily gathered from a variety of Scriptural statements. For example, let it not be overlooked that we are continually enjoined in God's word to make the Scriptures our study : " Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were writ-

1 Ps. cxix. 18. 2 John, xvi. 15.

36 LECTURE II.

ten," it is said, *'for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the Scrip- tures, might have hope/'^ "These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt teach them dili- gently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in tliine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."~ " Search the Scriptures," said our blessed Lord to the multitudes whom he addressed ; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life."^ r^' It is one evidence of the apostasy of the Church of Rome from the true faith, that she has laid her restriction upon the free circulation of the Scriptures, and pretends to confer as a privilege upon a few what is the indubitable birthright of all, the liberty of unrestrained access to the pages of Scrip- ture.

Amongst the sins for which Rome will

1 Rom. XV. 4. 2 Deut. vi. 7. » John, v. 39.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 37

have to answer at the bar of God's righteous judgment, and amongst the causes which will ere long bring down upon her the threatened indignation of the Almighty, not the least will be the crime of which she is guilty, of having to the extent of her power deprived her followers of the volume which God gave to be the lamp of our feet and the light of our path.^

And oh ! when nations and individuals come to be reckoned with according to the privileges which God hath vouchsafed to them, and the responsibilities under which he hath placed them, not the least of those privileges, and probably the weightiest of those responsibilities, will appear to have been the gift of the Scriptm^es, with the liberty to read each man for himself, in his own tongue, " the wonderful works of God." _J

Besides, however, the fact, that God in His word hath commanded us to read the Scriptures, and that this command of itself

1 Ps. cxix. 105.

38 LECTURE II.

implies the capability of those Scriptures to promote growth in grace, this property is directly attributed to the Scriptures in various well-known passages. Who is not familiar with the testimony of David upon this point ? How continually in thi^ 119th Psalm does he refer to the Scriptures as a source of spiritual illumination and support ! How earnestly does he express the feeling of delight which he experienced in medita- tion upon God's word ! What else made the patriarch Job exclaim, "I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my neces- sary food/'^ Was it not to express the power of the Divine word to operate might- ily upon the soul, that Jeremiah uttered that memorable saying, " Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the Lord ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? " "^ So, again, the prophet Micah thus expostulated with the inhabitants of Judah : "0 thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the

1 Job, xxiii. IQ. 2 Jer. xxiii. 29.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 39

Spirit of the Lord straitened ? Do not my words do good to him that walketh up- rightly ? " ^ When the inspired Apostle was about to quit the Ephesian Church for the last time, upon his way to martyrdom, and when he foreknew the trials and tempt- ations which would speedily overtake the Christians of that city, to what did he com- mend them, in the prospect of such peril ? Why, he paid this homage to the Scriptures, that in place of commending them to the word or the teaching of man, " Now, bre- thren," he wrote, " I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inherit- ance among all them which are sanctified/'" The same Apostle has left upon record this testimony to the power of the Scriptures : " The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and mar- 1 Micah, ii. 7. 2 Acts, xx. 32.

40 LECTURE II.

row, and is a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart." ^ St. James bears this testimony to the inspired word ; that "being engrafted/' or, in other words, received in faith and incorporated into the daily hfe and conversation, "it is able to save the soul;"^ and to crown these various testi- monies which relate to the power of the written word, let it be borne in mind, that when our blessed Lord Himself interceded upon earth in behalf of His chosen disci- ples, and of all others who, through their word, should believe upon His name, one of His petitions was this, — " Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." "^

Can testimony more clear or abundant than the foregoing be needed to evidence the reality that the written word is a mean of grace ; that we have in this volume an ines- timably precious instrument, through which God is pleased to quicken the dead soul, to impart the supplies of life to the soul which

1 Heb. iv. 12. « James, i. 21. ^ John, xvii. 17.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 41

has been quickened, and to carry forward that indispensable process of sanctification whereby the behever is quahfied for the enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance ?

Here, however, it may be asked. By what method do the Scriptures operate to this end ? ( We have seen that in the hand of the Holy Spirit they are a mean of grace ; but how is it that they actually become so ? ) The answer is simple : The Scriptures are a mean of grace ; first, as they are the source of all saving knoioledge. There is a connexion not to be overlooked between knowledge and grace. The two things are not inseparable : knowledge may exist, to at least some extent, without grace ; but grace cannot be matured without knowledge. Hence growth in grace is frequently spoken of in connexion with growth in knowledge : " Grow in grace," said the Apostle St. Peter, " and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. " ^ And when at 1 2 Pet. iii, 18.

42 LECTURE II.

another time he was describing the several steps of that ladder of grace which conducts to glory, knowledge is one of the principal steps to which he made allusion. " Add," said he, "to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, tem- perance." ^

Now where is this knowledge to be found? In its purity, I reply, only in the Scriptures. All human sources of knowledge will be found in some measure to partake of human imperfection. The fountain which you have in the Scriptures is pure as crystal. Here the water of life flows with clear trans- parency, like that river which the Evangelist beheld proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. If you search into human writings for the exposition of fundamental doctrine you will find that, just in propor- tion as they depart from the simple state- ments of God's word, they become indis- tinct, confused, or erroneous. God's word I '2 Pet. i. 5. 6.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 43

speaks intelligibly, so that the meanest understanding may comprehend what is necessary to be known of saving truth. " The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein/' ' Compare the elaborate treatises which have been composed upon the various doctrines of Christianity, with the brief, comprehensive, clear statements of God's word ; and you may perceive at once that to place confidence in any other guidance but that of Scripture is the certain way to become perplexed, if not deluded into error. Volumes have been written upon the doctrine of human depravity, but where do you find a plainer or more comprehensive statement of the doctrine than in the lan- guage of Scripture? ''The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.'"^ " The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, nei- ther indeed can be."^ Councils, fathers, and theologians have expended time and efibrt

1 Isa. XXXV. 8. 2 Jer. xvii. 9. ^ Rom. viii.7.

44 LECTURE II.

upon the attempt to elucidate the doctrines of the atonement and the scheme of a sin- ner's justification ; but with what further success in many instances than to " darken counsel by words without knowledge," let any one say who has consulted their decrees or treatises, and compared them with such statements as these of the lively oracles themselves. " God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him ;"^ "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."^ If you dive into the writings of theologians, you may find much that is valuable, much that is instructive, much that is comforting and precious ; but you will find a vast deal more that is speculative, unprofitable, vain, or erroneous : whereas the more you search into Scripture, the more will you glean of essential truth ; the more will you gain of what is in reality fitted to enlighten

1 2 Cor. V. 21. 2 i^om. v. 1.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 45

and to elevate, to purify and to humble, to sanctify and to save. The Scriptures, then, are a mean of grace ; first, as they are the source of saving truth. Millions have found them to be so : millions of ran- somed souls, now bathed in the splendours of that hght which mortal man cannot ap- proach, have been guided on their path through this wilderness world to the realms of glory by no other lamp than those very Scriptures which we possess, and of which David exclaimed, — " Thy word hath quick- ened me."

Again, the Scriptures are peculiarfy adapted to promote growth in grace, as they abound with promise on the one hand and with threatening on the other ; experience attests that there are no passions of the human heart which exert a greater influence upon human conduct than hope and fear. The language of promise is addressed to the one of these passions ; and the language of threatening to the other. Let this language

46 LECTURE II.

be only believed, and in proportion as it is so the life will be influenced, and the work of grace be furthered.

In the first quickening of a sinner from spiritual death, is it not generally by means of fear or of hope that he is roused to exertion ? It is either that the voice of God, telhng of " tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil,"^ "of the worm that cannot die, and the fire that cannot be quenched," ^ as the doom of the impenitent and the unconverted ; that this voice, I say, has acted upon his fear of impending ruin, and made him in haste to flee from the wrath to come ; or otherwise it is, that the same voice proclaiming the Divine willing- ness for his salvation, uttering the gracious assurance tliat the Lord '' is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;"^ promising to the returning prodigal the gracious wel- come of a reconciled Father; bidding him

1 Rom. ii. 9. 2 Mark, ix. 44. 3 2 Pet. iii. 9.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 47

draw near with a true heart, and in full assurance of faith that "Jesus is able to save to the uttermost," ^ and that "whosoever Cometh to God by Him shall in no wise be cast out."^ It is this language of pro- mise which has breathed into the soul a lingering desire for spiritual freedom ; and the call to arise from the dead has been responded to as by the Psalmist of old, who exclaimed, — "When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."^

And if it is by means of these addresses, whether to hope or to fear, that the Bible becomes instrumental to spiritual regenera- tion, in like manner, and at all the sub- sequent periods of a believer's experience, it is the promise and threatening of Scrip- ture which become like a wall on the right hand and the left to keep him steadfast. Often might the enemy prevail against him, did not the dread of losing what he has

1 Heb. vii. 25. 2 John, vi. 37. =» Ps. xxvii. 8.

48 LECTURE II.

wrought make him fear to transgress. " Thy word," said the Psahiiist, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee."^ And then, what support and what encourage- ment there is in the promises of God's word ! " I had fainted," said David, " unless I had beheved to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."^ Oh, yes! w^ien trials thicken, when temptations roll in as with the force of mighty breakers on the soul, when heaviness settles upon the spirit, these are seasons when nothing can so strengthen for conflict as the power of the divine promises. But they are adapted, blessed be God ! to every case, and to every emergency. They speak of God's presence in the season of affliction, — "God is a very present help in trouble;"^ "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, 1 Ps. cxix. 11 2 pg. xxvii. 13. ^ Ps. xlvi. 1.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 49

neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."^ They speak of God's power to succour the tempted, — " When the enemy shall come in Hke a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him ;"^ " God is faith- ful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able to bear, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."^ For the spiritually oppressed the Scriptures have also a message of promise : " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no Hght ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."* " Rejoice not against me, 0 mine enemy : when I fall, I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a hght unto me."^ It is thus that the Scrip- tures, through the instrumentality of the

' Isa. xliii. 2. 3 i Cor. x. 13.

2 Isa. lix. 19. * Isa. l. 10.

5 Micah, vii. 8.

50 LECTURE II.

promises or the threatenings which they contain, become effectual through the Spi- rit's grace to quicken, to uphold, to comfort, and to guide the believer. Who can survey them under this aspect, and not perceive how well fitted they are to produce and to carry forward the work of grace in the soul of man ?

We might easily adduce further illus- trations of the method in which the study of God's word subserves this mighty design. The Scriptures furnish a perfect rule of con- duct,— "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."^ Nor only do they present us with a perfect rule ; they afford noble examples, to serve as patterns for imi- tation, and surround us, as it were, with a great cloud of witnesses, who beckon and stimulate us onward in the race that lies before us.

We are content, however, to leave the subject at this point, beheving that enough 1 Psalm, xix. 7.

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 51

has been said to establish the claim of the study of the Scriptures to be regarded as an important mean of grace, and enough to point out the method in which they be- come so. One word in closing the present discourse of practical exhortation with re- spect to the manner of using this mean of grace — A mean so important cannot with safety be neglected; the soul, hke the body, stands in need of sustenance. God could, indeed, if He pleased, support the natural hfe by miracle, without the employ- ment of food : but such is not the ordinary method, nor have we any warrant to expect that it should be so. The same thing holds with respect to the soul : man is to live by " every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The Bible is the great storehouse of spiritual food; let us search it, then, with diligence, as expecting to find therein that which will enrich us for eter- nity. To profit by the reading of Scripture, it is imperative to read it with prayer for

52 LECTURE II.

the teaching of God's Spirit. With read- ing you must combine meditation : seek to study the vokime as if each moment ex- pecting to hear a voice from God addressed to your soul. Be not so much in earnest to read a vast deal, as to read a little well ; one text prayed over and pondered upon, its precepts reduced to practice, or its pro- mise applied and remembered, will be of more benefit than a whole chapter hastily perused without prayer, meditation, or recol- lection. What does this verse, or what does this chapter, teach me? These are questions that should be always present to the mind of the student of Scripture ; and oh, bear in mind that the end of studying the Bible is that you may " grow in grace." To study merely to acquire knowledge is not to study so as to advance your eternal welfare ; to study the Scriptures merely to impart knowledge to others may be good as far as it goes, but you may do this and yet gain no spiritual benefit. But to study

THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. 53

the Bible in order that you may imbibe its real spirit, and come beneath the sanctifying influence of its heavenly doctrines, and gain a conformity to Christ, and shape your course by the rules it afibrds ; this is that study of God's revealed ^ill which shall qualify for the enjoyment of His presence in glory, and issue in the beholding Him as He is, and the being made eternally blessed.

LECTURE III.

PRAYER.

Job, xxi. 15. '' What profit should we have, if we pray unto Him ?"

Our subject this morning is prayer — prayer considered as a mean of grace adapted to promote the spiritual welfare. The language of the text is the expression of unbelief, — it is the question of one who denies the efficacy of supplication. We shall give an answer to the question, although not such a reply as it was meant to elicit. We propose to establish, upon conclusive evidence, that there is profit in prayer ; so that this exercise may be properly regarded,

PRAYER. 55

not alone as an exalted privilege or an im- perative duty, but also as a powerful auxiliary to keep alive and to strengthen, to improve and invigorate, every spiritual grace.

There have been some in all ages impious enough to deny, or rash enough to question, the efficacy of prayer ; men who, in the pride of a false philosophy, aiming to be wiser than God, have affected to dispute the necessity of prayer. They have argued, that since God is a Being of infinite om- niscience, therefore it is unnecessary to ac- quaint Him with the want of which He cannot be uninformed.

Again, they have said that since God is a Being of immutable purpose, therefore it is erroneous to imagine that the cry of a sup- pliant on earth can alter the mind of Him who hath predetermined " all things after the counsel of His own will."

I shall not now occupy time in exposing the fallacy of objections hke these ; I will simply say of them, they are both irrational

56 LECTURE III.

and unscriptural ; they will neither stand the light of reason nor the testimony of experience ; they proceed from the sugges- tion of Satan, who, knowing too well the efficacy of prayer as a weapon in the hand of the believer, would gladly make it appear to be a weapon of no value at all.

Every argument that can be alleged against prayer is at once refuted by the consideration that God has been pleased to command us to pray. It is not left to our own option whether or not to pray; God has directed us to seek unto Him at all times by dihgent supplication, and " in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, to let our requests be made known unto Him."^

God, it is true, is an unchangeable Being, no one of the things which He hath deter- mined can fail to come to pass : and yet it is in the power of faithful supplication, for the merit's sake of the Redeemer, to prevail 1 Philip, iv. 6.

PRAYER. 57

with God. This is not a matter of theory : it is a fact which revelation asserts and experience proves ; and who can tell but that, in the councils of the Divine Being, even those things which are most determined to come to pass are preordained only with certain conditions, and that one of those conditions may be the prayer of faith?

To let this pass, however, I assume that we are all convinced of the duty of prayer, and that we also regard it as the believer's high privilege. The point we have to in- vestigate is the efficacy of prayer, as a mean to advance the believer's growth in grace. How does it appear that grace is strengthened or increased by the perse- vering exercise of faithful supplication ?

It is my earnest desire to put this truth before you, so as, by the help of God's Spirit, to carry conviction to every heart ; so persuaded am I of the real power of prayer to ensure growth in grace, that I should have the most unbounded confidence,

58 LECTURE III.

that, provided only you were to leave this sanctuary to-day, resolved upon a more frequent, persevering, and faithful continu- ance in prayer, you would realise in the carrying out of that resolve a perceptible advance in spiritual attainment, and personal meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light.

- We know how intimately the exercise of prayer is associated with the first dawn of spiritual hfe. The soul begins to live when it begins to pray ; the cry which proceeds from a broken and contrite heart ; the cry of the wounded conscience, of the trem- bling spirit pleading for mercy — a mercy urgently needed, although miserably unde- served ; this cry is the first symptom of the Divine life : it is the struggling of the soul to be free from the bondage of guilt and condemnation, which betokens that deliverance is near, that the slumber of spiritual death is broken, and the Spirit of God is about to operate in His quickening,

PRAYER. 59

regenerating, recreating, and sanctifying energy.

When a hitherto prayerless soul is brought to resemble him of whom it was said, "Behold, he prayeth!" then may an- gels in heaven rejoice, and saints on earth participate in their gladness for the rescue of another captive from Satan, and the addition of another gem to the Redeemer's crown.

Let me not, however, be misunderstood. It is not every prayer which is such a hopeful evidence of spiritual regeneration ; not every cry of supplication which is fraught with such joyful earnest of blessed things in prospect for him by whom it is uttered.

There is the prayer of the formalist — the prayer of the hypocrite — the prayer which is not mingled with faith — the prayer which is prompted by no sense of urgent need — and the lifeless, unmeaning prayer of those who neither deprecate in sincerity the evils from which they ask to be delivered, nor desire with sincerity the blessings for which

60; LECTURE III.

they make supplication. These are not the prayers which breathe of spiritual life ; these afford no reason to suppose that the spell of iniquity is broken, or the power of Satan subdued.

The prayer to which I refer, as the index of a new life imparted to the soul, is that cry of intense, eager longing, prompted by the intolerable dread of impending ruin, and the almost unutterable desire for deh- verance from God's wrath and the attain- ment of pardon. It is the breaking forth of an anguish such as words can ill describe — an anguish of spirit, produced by the con- sciousness of guilt and defilement, and exposure to wrath, blended nevertheless with a conviction that there must be some avenue of escape, some door of hope through which light may at length break in to relieve the soul's insupportable gloom. There will be in such a prayer an earnestness and fervour which bespeak that the whole energies of the being by whom it is offered are, for the

PRAYER. 61

while, absorbed in the one thought, " What must I do to be saved ? " And the man feel- ing that his soul is at stake, that on the success or otherwise of his suit heaven or hell is the alternative, will pour forth his supplications as one wrestling for his very hfe, or engaged in a struggle the issue of which must be everlasting glory or ever- lasting condemnation.

Now this is that prayer which indicates the new birth; this is that wrestling with God in supphcation which bespeaks the resurrection of the soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, and the dis- enchaining of a hitherto captive spirit from the fetters of evil that it may expatiate at liberty in the light and the freedom of the Gospel of Jesus. Let me tell you this, dear brethren, with the plainness, fidelity, and affection which become an ambassador for Christ, pleading with you in God's behalf, and for your soul's sake, — that if you have never known what it is thus to pray in ear-

62 LECTURE III.

nest ; in the privacy of your own chamber, when no eye but the omniscient eye of God was upon you; to cry with such fervency for your soul's salvation ; you have yet to be roused to that sense of need which will alone bring you to Jesus, and cause the Sun of Righteousness to shine on your soul with healing in His wings.

Such is the connexion between prayer and the first awakening of spiritual life. I will only remark further, that I believe in this respect the experience of all who have been spiritually awakened is uniform; no one was ever yet quickened from spiritual death without being led from that moment to cry mightily to God for salvation. Be- cause of the uniformity of experience in this matter, prayer has not inaptly been de- scribed as the breath of the soul ; inti- mating that whereas the act of breathing is the first process of the natural life, so the act of praying is the first indication that spiritual life has in reality commenced.

PRAYER. 63

Let us pass on to examine how it is that prayer ministers to the after -growth in grace of the true behever ; only bearing in mind, that in whatever I now say respecting prayer, I speak not of the prayer of the formahst, and not of the prayer of the hypocrite, and not of the mechanical utter- ance of set forms of petition, which self- deceived persons may think to be praying ; but of that sincere and earnest expression of fervent desire which is oflPered to the great Searcher of hearts in the alone -prevailing name, for the alone-prevailing merit's sake of Jesus, and by the help of that Divine Spirit whose office it is to make " ioterces- sion for the saints according to the will of God."^

Now there is a purifying and a sancti- fying influence in the exercise of faithful supplication. Those who have given their best attention to the subject of influences in general, of the method in which we act 1 Rom. viii. 27.

64 LECTURE III.

upon others, and are in turn acted upon by one another, are universally agreed that the mind will acquire somewhat of the character of the object with wbich it has constant and habitual intercourse : if that object be en- nobling or elevating, the mind will become elevated or ennobled ; if the object be the contrary to this, the effect will still cor- respond. Apply this principle to the sub- ject of our present consideration. Prayer is intercourse with God; it is the commu- nion of the soul of man with the infinite and invisible Jehovah ; it is the ennobling exercise in which for the while the creature is detached from earth and soars aloft to the throne of Divinity, and there stands, in communion with the infinitely pure and holy God. It is an unspeakably solemn spectacle, that of a true believer engaged in earnest devotion. What a scene is then presented to the eye of faith ! How near does heaven appear to be brought ! The believer who, on his bended knee, is thus

PRAYER. 65

holding converse with the Creator of the universe; he is associated with the thou- sand times ten thousand ministering spirits that stand around the throne of Divinity ; with the eye of his inner man he is looking upon the King eternal invisible ; he is speaking to that King as a child speaking to its father ; and the Son of God is stand- ing before the throne, hearkening to the cry of supplication, the confession of guilt, or the accents of praise and thanksgiving ; and the Spirit of God, w^ho in the beginning moved on the face of the w^aters, is present with this humble suppliant, offering intercession with him ; and Jehovah Himself bends down to hear his cry and accept his homage. Is it not a solemn, yea, and an awful moment ? Could we realise the transaction in all the circumstances that belong to it — the rela- tion which it has to man's creation in the likeness of God ; his fall ; his ruin ; redemp- tion ; probation, and eternal destiny; — it is a transaction upon which we might almost

66 LECTURE III.

imagine that angels would hush their an- thems to gaze with wonder and amazement. But I ask if this must not be a purifying exercise to the man who engages in it ? And if it be a law of our present condition, that the soul gathers impressions from the ob- ject of its constant contemplation ; that it is ennobled by what is ennobling, and deterio- rated by what is debasing, then can it be that the soul should be frequently upborne to the courts of heaven, and not derive a purifying influence from the atmosphere of glory which surrounds the throne of Divi- nity ? So that, just as Moses, when he had been permitted to tarry upon the mount with God, returned from thence with so much of reflected radiance on his counte- nance as dazzled the eye of Israel ; in Uke manner the soul of the believer, which has been caught up into near communion with God, will catch somewhat of the ethereal purity and sacredness which pervades the upper sanctuary.

PRAYER. 67

And here I might appeal to experience in confirmation of the point, that prayer is in itself a mean for attracting to the suppliant somewhat of the holiness of heaven itself. Look at two, at least, of those who emphatically appear in Scrip- ture as eminent for prayer : Enoch, who hved such a life of prayer that he is said to have "walked with God," and at last became so fitted for heaven that he was translated without seeing death ; Ehas, who, on the page of God's word, is equally dis- tinguished for his having been a man of prayer, and who also gained such meetness for paradise that a chariot of fire and horses of fire were prepared to convey him, in the full integrity of his being, body and soul, at once to the rest of heaven. Look at the testimony of experience in modern times ; is there a single instance of any one having risen to eminence for holiness of character, of whom it may not be recorded that by how much he surpassed others in the exhibition

68 LECTURE III.

of every grace of the Spirit, by so much he surpassed them also in the frequency, the sincerity, the constancy, and the faith- fuhiess with which he engaged in the exercise of prayer?

It is not only, however, that prayer has a purifying influence upon the heart, and thus becomes a mean of grace; prayer has a further and direct influence to counteract whatsoever is opposed to growth in grace. Now, surely we must be all conscious of the many impediments which surround the en- deavour to grow in grace. The mere for- malist in religion knows nothing, indeed, of those impediments ; a rehgion of form will meet with no opposition : but whoever is in earnest for his soul's welfare will quickly discover that the Scriptural expres- sions are literally true, which resemble the divine life to a race, a warfare, a conflict, and a battle.

There is the chilling influence of the world, of worldly pursuits and worldly asso-

PRAYER. 69

ciations, upon spiritual fervour. There is the deadening effect which secular occupation is found to have upon the spiritual affec- tions. The necessity of being much devoted to the cares of earth and earthly things has a strong tendency to diminish the influence of the things which are unseen and eternal. Have you not experienced, that when busily occupied in the performance of secular du- ties, it has been practically a hard matter to retain that spirituality of tone and temper which you know to be required of one whose citizenship is in heaven? not to dwell upon the thousand temptations to which we are constantly and directly exposed to act at variance with God's will, or inconsistently with our Christian profession, the point needs not further illustration, that a Christ- ian who is aiming after growth in grace is in continual danger of being hindered by the manifold influences of an opposite ten- dency with which he is surrounded. Now, what is that one mean of grace

70 LECTURE III.

which more effectively in the hand of the Spirit operates than another to coun- teract these injurious influences ? Surely it is the practice of private prayer. Never does the world appear more insignificant, never do worldly pleasures appear so in- sipid, never will temptations have less power, than when the soul has been engaged in secret communion with God. He who has been with God on the mount, and by faith realised somewhat of the glories that surround the Redeemer, what attraction can he find in the vain pomp or distinc- tion of earth ? He who, in the exercise of devotion, has had his mind fixed on the real- ities of eternity, with what comparative indif- ference will he regard the short-lived things of time ! How can we engage in com- munion with God, pour forth our hearts before Him in humble confession, or in hearty praise, or in deep supplication, and then rush into the practice of what God has plainly forbidden? It is thus that

PRAYER. 71

prayer becomes a powerful mean to coun- teract the injurious influence of objects around us; of the cares, the occupations, or the pleasures of earth, which tend to deaden spirituality and to impede growth in grace. It is not to be told upon what a vantage ground it would place you wdth respect to all the distracting concerns of life, if you would strive to live a Hfe of prayer, if you would snatch not alone some portion of time, morning and evening, for secret communion with God, but be so much in the habit of intercourse with heaven at all periods of the day as practically to comply with the Apostle's injunction, " Pray without ceasing."^

I go on to observe, in further confirma- tion of the truth that prayer is such an important mean of grace, there is not any other ordained mean, the efficacy of which does not in great measure depend upon prayer. The ministry of the word and the 1 1 Thess. V. 17.

72 LECTURE III.

study of Scripture have already engaged our attention, as two of the most important of the ordinary means of grace ; and yet, un- less accompanied by prayer, they seem to possess little or no efficacy. Of course we do not limit the Divine sovereignty, or affirm that God cannot make a sermon, or the perusal of Scripture effectual, unless on the part of the person to be benefited there be the exercise of earnest supplication. But we speak of what is ordinarily to be ex- pected ; and here we feel confident in say- ing that you have no warrant to look for a blessing, except in the use of fervent prayer. Any value you might anticipate to derive from the faithful exposition of the Gospel, or from the private perusal of God's word, will be enhanced tenfold by the previous exercise of prayer : prayer is the preparation of the soil of the heart to receive the heavenly seed ; prayer before hearing or reading the word brings the soul into the most favourable condition to profit by the

PRAYER. 73

truth of Scripture. God is honoured by this recognition on our part of dependence on Him for spiritual blessing. Is not prayer, then, of itself pre-eminently a mean of grace, since the efficacy of even other means depends in great measure upon this?

And then, I observe, there is a prevalency in prayer, which, for the merit's sake of the Redeemer, draws down a blessing. We do not attempt to explain how it is that the God of glory should be accessible to the cry of a feeble creature upon earth, so that there is a persuasiveness in the feeble supphcation which wafts upward from a suffering hu- manity ; yet Scripture and experience war- rant the conclusion that faithful, persevering prayer, has power with God. The highest gifts which God has to bestow are promised in answer to the prayer of faith. God " will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."* If He will give the Holy Spirit, will He not 1 Luke, xi. 13.

74 LECTURE III.

impart every other blessing which is needful to the believer's growth in grace? "All things," said our blessed Saviour, "whatsoever ye ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive."^ Ex- perience testifies to the efficacy of prayer. Did not Jacob prevail in prayer when he wrestled with such importunity, and ex- claimed, " I will not let thee go except thou bless me?"^ Did not Moses often plead effectually on behalf of rebelHous Israel, and obtain for them the remission of threatened wrath and the return of favour withdrawn ? Did not the prayer of Elijah avail to shut and to open again the windows of heaven ? Was not the intercession of Abraham for So- dom an instance of the prevalency of faith- ful supplication ? Did not Christ hearken to the woman, who still urged her suit in spite of an apparent rekictance on His part to grant her request ? And have we not His own authority for declaring that God will hear the cry of " His own elect, which 1 Matt. xxi. 22 " Gen. xxxii. 26.

PRAYER. 75

cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?"*

Is it, then, your aim to grow in grace ? would you mount up with wings as eagles, and soar nearer to the fountain of light and glory ? Would you glow with a brighter reflexion of yom^ Saviour's image, and day by day ripen in meetness to take your position with the children of hght in the kingdom of glory? Prayer is your surest mean ; God is able to make all grace abound unto you ; the prayer of faith is the golden link which connects the impotence of man with the omnipotence of God : it is the key which unlocks the treasuries of Divine grace.

Let no weak believer be discouraged. God hearkens to the cry of the feeblest saint. The prayer which ascends from a contrite heart, in the full assurance of faith that God is able and willing to hear ; such prayer, though uttered in the lowest depths 1 Luke, xviii. 7.

76 LECTURE III.

of ocean or in the deepest mine of earth, will instantaneously penetrate to the throne of the Eternal, and move the hand of Him that moves the world.

I trust enough has been said to establish the efficacy of prayer as a mean of grace ; what I have advanced, has been spoken chiefly with reference to private prayer : the time would not allow me to dwell spe- cifically upon the various kinds of prayer, such as domestic, pubHc, or social : nor do I think it necessar}^ ; no one that values private prayer as he ought will undervalue prayer, whether in the family circle or in the sanctuaries of God's people.

There is this, however, to be observed, namely, that public or even social prayer may easily degenerate into a hfeless form ; whereas it is not so likely that a person will persevere in private prayer who is not sin- cere and in earnest. Let me commend you to the exercise of dihgent prayer ; you will commonly find that religion is thriving

PRAYER. 77

with you, or the reverse, in proportion as prayer is engaged in or not with regularity and fervour.

Dedine in rehgion invariably begins in secret ; the private exercises of devotion are abbreviated or neglected altogether, and then the oil is wanting which would keep the flame of piety burning. If you would pray with success, you must pray in faith ; unbehef will vitiate any prayer : you must try and reahse, as you pray, the presence of the invisible God, to be approached through the avenue of the Redeemer's intercession.

As a practical caution with respect to this duty and privilege, let me urge you literally to hegin every day with prayer ; come not forth to your daily routine of em- ployment until having fii-st armed yourself for the day's duties or trials by having sought in earnest prayer for Divine help, guidance, or support. Intermingle prayer with all you do or undertake ; this you would find a sure rule to determine what occupation or amuse-

78 LECTURE III.

ments are becoming or otherwise to a pro- fessing Christian. It is wrong for a disciple of Christ to be in any scene, to engage in any undertaking, to participate in any amuse- ment, in reference to which it would be inconsistent to ask for a Divine blessing. Hallow your ordinary occupations, sanctify your ordinary pursuits, enhance your joys, lighten the load of your daily anxieties, by making each and all of them the subject of prayer. Thus shall you find that you will grow in grace — you will attain more and more of the celestial character — you will rise to a loftier moral elevation — you will breathe a purer atmosphere, and reflect a brighter lustre — you will exhibit to others more of the fruit of the Spirit ; till, at length, grace itself shall expand into glory, and the life of prayer terminate in the eternity of praise.

LECTURE IV.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION.

Psalm kxvii. 6.

I commune with mine own heart : and my spirit made diligent search.

In pursuing our consideration of the various means of grace, the subject which comes be- fore us this morning is that of rehgious medi- tation and self-examination. The two topics are closely connected together ; they form se- parate parts of one and the same process, whereby grace is, ordinarily speaking, im- proved and strengthened. Many of the remarks which have been already made in reference to the other means of grace, apply

80 LECTURE IV.

with equal propriety to this. Neither the ministry of the word, nor the study of Scripture, nor the exercise of prayer, are to be considered as having any absolute pro- perty to communicate grace; they are wholly inefficient by themselves, except as the Spirit is pleased to make them effectual. They are the mere channels or instruments through which God generally vouchsafes spi- ritual profit. The same remark applies to the topic now to be considered. We can neither meditate aright upon divine things, nor yet scrutinise our own state with advantage, except by the help which comes from above, and in the light of that Divine Spirit whose province it is to illumine and to sanctify the soul.

Recognising, then, the never-to-be-forgot- ten truth of our entire dependence upon the aid of the Holy Spirit, let us proceed to exa- mine how it is that the habit of meditation upon divine truth, and of diligent examination of our heart and ways, become instrumental

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to the noblest of all attainments — namely, growth in grace, or a closer assimilation to the character of Christ.

The value of any habit may be often best perceived by considering the result which must follow from its neglect or omission. And the excellence of religious meditation may be tested by considering the evils which result wheresoever this practice is not fol- lowed. Is it, then, any exaggerated state- ment if we affirm, that the overwhelming mass of irreligion and crime by which the world is overspread, proceeds in great measure from the want of consideration? That, provided men would pause and re- flect — if, in other words, they would bring themselves to the task of solemn medita- tion, the unconverted would be alarmed, the careless be roused to some feeling of rehgious concern, the overflowings of ini- quity would be stayed, and the impious would be arrested in their career of guilt and rebellion?

82 LECTURE IV.

It is because men do not consider, there- fore they hurry on to the vortex of perdition. It is the absence of reflection which suffers them to continue unconcerned ; even the impenitent and unconverted, could they be brought to meditate upon what they in rea- hty are — upon their actual position before God — whither they are hastening — towards what alternative, and to what portion, the result would appear in an immediate cry of earnestness, — " What must I do to be saved?"

This observation is confirmed by recol- lecting that in almost every instance of con- version to God, one grand and effectual mean to this result has been, meditation. The sinner has been roused to reflect ; through some providential dispensation he has been forced to consider : consideration has served, by God's blessing, to expose to him his real danger. He has been led to perceive the fearful precipice upon which he has been hitherto standing ; meditation has

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 8 '3

disclosed the infinite guilt which attaches to a course of continual impenitence, hardness, and unbelief, — the justice with which God might long since have left him to perish — the amazing extent of that forbearance whereof he has been the subject — the im- perative necessity that he should at once flee from the wrath to come, and seek for a personal interest in the atoning blood and the sanctifying righteousness of Jesus.

Thus it is that, in almost every instance of genuine conversion to God, meditation is one of the secret springs whereby the Spirit operates to produce the mighty transform- ation.

Men are led to reflect — reflection exposing at once their danger and their duty, their guilt, and its remedy, the happy result follows, of which the Psalmist speaks from his own experience : "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testi- monies."' A blessed moment it is in the

1 Ps. cxix. 59.

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moral history of any man when he is first roused to reflect ; when he is arrested in a course of heedless unconcern, and compelled to ask as in the sight of God, Whence am I ? — wliither am I going ? — upon what invisible power am I continually depend- ent?— whose unseen arm is it that guides and upholds me ? — whose watchful provi- dence that has shielded me in many an unforeseen peril, or rescued me from many an impending calamity ? What is to be- come of me hereafter, when earthly rela- tionships shall all have been broken up — when the occupations in which I am now so restlessly engaged, or the pursuits to which I am now so eagerly devoted, or the plea- sures in which I now so fervently partici- pate, or the honours which I now so fondly cherish, must all be abandoned ? when this body, in which the pulse of life beats warmly, shall be surrendered to corruption, and the soul which dwells within shall have sped its way upward and alone, to

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 85

stand in the presence of Him who is its Maker and Judge ? What shall atone for my guilt ? what shall ensure in my behalf a bright and a blissful eternity ? Blessed, I repeat, is that moment in the moral his- tory of any man, when questions such as these force themselves upon the attention, and when in the exercise of deep, earnest meditation and self-examination, he is com- pelled to adopt the course of which David speaks in the text, " I commune with mine own heart : and my spirit made diligent search/'

The foregoing remarks apply to self- recollection and self-scrutiny, as instru- mental to the first quickening of a soul from spiritual death ; whereas the subject properly under review belongs to the after progress of the divine life, or, in other words, to growth in grace.

You will generally find, however, that the same instrumentality which is effectual to produce, is equally efficient to sustain and

86 LECTURE IV.

invigorate the work of grace. For example, it is under the ministry of the word that God frequently operates to produce spiritual regeneration. What myriads of souls shall we meet in glory who will refer to the preaching of the Gospel as the mean by which they were brought out of darkness into light ! Yet no one will say that the full end of the ministry is achieved, simply when a soul has been quickened. "By the foolishness of preaching," we are told, " it pleases God to save them that believe''^ The mean which first quickens is made instrumental to carry forward and complete the work of grace. This observation also applies re- markably to prayer ; the cry of earnest supplication is the first token of spiritual life ; yet prayer is the soul-invigorating and soul-sustaining exercise of the believer to the very end of his course upon earth. Precisely in the same manner, meditation, which is not infrequently the instrumentality ' 1 Cor. i. 21.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 87

whereby conversion is effected, is one of the surest means to perpetuate the work of grace.

The instrumentaUty to which the behever is indebted for having been effectually called must be employed again and again, in order to make his calling and election sure.

Can we in any measure explain or illus- trate this ? Can we make it apparent how it is that religious meditation contributes to advance in religious attainment ? In reply to these inquiries I observe, that meditation upon any subject whatsoever has the property to increase the influence of that subject upon the mind. What you frequently ponder upon will gradually assume a power over you ; becoming interwoven with every thought, it will presently influence every action ; till the words you speak, and the course you pursue, will be determined by the prevaihng thought which occupies the mind. This is the case in ordinary matters. The subject to which we continually yield ourselves in fixed meditation will eventually gain an

88 LECTURE IV.

ascendancy over us, influencing our conduct in every scene and in every transaction of life.

Apply these remarks to the case of medi- tation upon divine things. He who is fre- quently contemplating the things of God, is taking the Hkeliest course to ensure that these things shall habitually influence his words and actions ; it is for want of such meditation that truths which are adapted to stir the inmost depths of the heart, and kin- dle into warmth the coldest afiections, fre- quently sweep over the surface of the mind, leaving not a trace nor an impress behind them. The truth takes no hold of the judg- ment or the affections, till it is pondered upon and made the subject of deep medita- tion.

Now, upon this principle, it is easy to explain wherefore it sometimes happens that Christians who are in the regular habit of frequenting the various means of grace, nevertheless exhibit so little of advance, and betray so much of ignorance respecting the

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 89

first principles of the doctrine of Christ. If there was the same measure of carefulness to meditate upon spiritual truth as there is of zeal in hearkening to its oral dehvery, we should not have to mourn over so much of precious seed apparently wasted; or to lament over a growth, so feeble and imper- fect, where the means of grace are so free and abundant.

The sum of the whole, then, is this. Reli- gious contemplation is an effectual mean to deepen and to render permanent the im- pressions of reUgious truth. Without this practice it is scarcely possible for spiritual matters to retain their ascendancy. What falls upon the ear, or what is perused by the eye, must be engrafted into the heart by careful meditation. Should we neglect to have recourse to this practice, the first breath of temptation may turn us aside, and the first wind of false doctrine may involve us in shipwreck of faith. Meditation is the exercise in which the believer appropriates

90 LECTURE IV.

and turns to profitable account the pro- mises, the warnings, or the precepts of Scripture. It ought to be combined with every other spiritual exercise. Is it, for example, the ministry of the word upon which you attend? Let prayerful medi- tation precede and follow the exercise ; the message of the Gospel comes with immea- surably increased power when there is me- ditation beforehand as well as meditation afterwards ; whereas when Christians rise from the hearing of the word, and forthwith (aye, sometimes almost before the sanc- tuary is left) begin to converse upon mere secular matters, the trivial and unimportant concerns of time, what marvel that any im- pression which the minister of Christ may have for a moment produced is in a moment e£Paced, so that the good seed that was sown is followed by no better result than as if scattered by the wayside to be devoured by the fowls of the air ?

The sanae remark applies to the study of

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 91

Scripture. When shall we learn that, as in natural things, it is not the quantity of aliment which is taken, but the amount which is actually appropriated by the system, which contributes to its growth and in- vigoration, so with respect to the soul, it is not the degree of knowledge we acquire, but the degree in which we appropriate heavenly truth, which really ministers to growth in grace?

Now it is by meditation that we lay hold of and appropriate divine truth. " There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." ^ "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." ^ " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."^ *' He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him."* " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast oat."^ Truths like these, of such mu-

' 1 Tim. ii. 5. ^ i John, i. 7.

2 Luke, xix. 10. * Heb. vii. 25.

5 John, vi. 37.

92 LECTURE IV.

sical sweetness that one might long for an angel's tongue to proclaim them, how often they vibrate on the chords of memory, pro- ducing no more abiding effect than the strains of an ^olian harp ! But, oh ! let them be dwelt upon ; let them be lodged firmly in the heart till they become the food of the mind and incorporated with our spiritual existence, and it will follow from such practical meditation that the soul is quickened, refreshed, invigorated, presenting the encouraging fruits and tokens of a real and abiding growth in grace.

I would only observe further, before passing to the second part of the subject, that meditation is a duty sanctioned by Scriptural example and enforced by Scrip- tiu-al precept. For religious meditation, Isaac of old betook himself to the field at eventide.* The Psalmist, who has left upon record such incomparable treasures of spiritual expe- rience, was conversant with the practice » Gen. xxiv. 63.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 93

under review. He, too, was in the habit, Hke Isaac, in the stillness of even, to " con- sider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;"^ and then brake forth the burst of acknowledgment, — " What is man, that Thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?"- He found his sweetest solace in deep meditation upon the things of God. "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness ; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips : when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night-watches."^ " My meditation of Him shall be sweet ; I will be glad in the Lord."'* "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day."^ Nor only have we illustrious examples to confirm the duty and advantage of religious contemplation ; the practice is enforced,

' Ps. viii. 3. 3 Ps. Ixiii. 5.

2 Ps. viii. 4. * Ps. civ. 34.

* Ps. cxix. 97.

94 LECTURE IV.

likewise, bj precept. "This book of the law," it was commanded to Joshua, " shall not depart out of thy mouth ; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein : for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."^

" Ponder the path of thy feet " (said the wisest of men, and gifted, moreover, with Divine inspiration), "and let thy ways be established.'"^ In commendation of Mary, it is recorded by St. Luke, " she kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." ^ "Meditate upon these things," said the Apostle to Timothy ; " give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all."*

Need more be advanced to make it evi- dent that religious meditation is a mean of grace, commended by many a weighty con-

1 Josh. i. 8. 3 Luke, ii. 19.

2 Prov. iv. 26. ♦ 1 Tim. iv. 15.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 95

sideration, by the examples of believers emi- nent for their piety, and by precepts to which every disciple of Christ should render obedience ?

Here let me pass on to notice the second branch of the subject, namely, self-examina- tion. The two exercises of reflection and self-scrutiny are closely connected together ; the one is the handmaid to the other, in- tended to subserve and to aid its perform- ance. They were evidently associated in the practice of David. He "communed with his own heart, and his spirit made dihgent search." Upon the duty of self- examination I may observe, that, like the former to which we have been referring, it is enjoined in Scripture, by example as well as by precept. David was in the habit of self-investigation : nay, when he had carried this process to the furthest point, and still feared lest some sin might have escaped detection, he earnestly sought for Divine help : " Examine me, O Lord, and prove

d6 LECTURE IV.

me; try my reins and my heart/'i And again, " Search me, O God, and know my heart : try me, and know my thoughts : and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."" The duty is clearly enjoined by St. Paul when writing to the Corinthians; his words are, "Exa- mine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves."^

Declarations like these are amply sufficient to establish the duty. No one who gives to them the weight to which they are en- titled will question for a moment that self- examination is a task which is plainly re- quired of a professing disciple.

It is reasonable, also, to suppose, that the adoption of this practice must power- fully tend to establishment and growth in grace. Whatever helps to build up a con- viction of the paramount importance of the soul's interests, whatever serves to weaken

1 Ps. xxvi. 2. 2 pg cxxxix. 23, 24.

3 2 Cor. xiii. 5.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 97

the influence of things present or temporal, whatever leads to the detection of error, the exposure of sin, or the discovery of the soul's helplessness out of Christ, can hardly fail to advance the spiritual welfare. Is it not clear that the habit of self-examination must have this tendency? The practice of bringing the whole of our conduct, the principles by which we are governed, the motives by which we are influenced, the actions we perform, into a court of inquiry ; must not this remind us of the truth that we are not our own, but are bound to live to the glory of Christ ? As sin is detected in this process ; as fresh failures are painfully evidenced ; as new proofs appear of that in- wrought depravity which cleaves to our nature ; as repeated proofs are presented of moral inability to do the least thing that is good, or to maintain for a single day, in our own strength, an even walk with God ; must there not be a tendency in this to make a believer realise more of the precious-

H

98 LECTURE IV.

ness of Christ, in whom, through beheving, he is pardoned and accepted? Thus the process of self-examination, even if it be a humbhng one, as leading to the fuller dis- covery of guilt and imperfection, is, never- theless, an invigorating exercise for the soul, if it produce a fuller dependence upon Christ, a more vivid recognition of the need which there is to depend on Him as the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and the Finisher of our faith.

Admitting, then, that self-examination is an unquestionable duty, and a powerful mean of grace ; the practical inquiry before us relates to the subject-matter of self-exami- nation, and the frequency with which the duty ought to be performed. In speaking then of the topics for self-examination, I would observe there are two main points which should ever be borne in mind in this exer- cise : we have to ascertain both the reality and the progress of our spiritual life. Self- examination should be directed with a view

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 99

to discover, 1. Wltether loe are, in truth, the disciples of Jesus ? and, 2dly, Whether, if disciples, we are walkimg worthy of our voca- tion ? What is it, then, to be a disciple in- deed? Oh, think not this an unimportant or an unnecessary point of inquiry. Men may be easily deceived ; others may reckon us dis- ciples, although in God's sight we have but a name to live and are spiritually dead. Nay, v^^e may deceive ourselves ; and easily, though falsely, imagine, that because we have knowledge, profession, gifts, and the reputa- tion of our fellow men, therefore we belong to Christ, and are actually in the faith.

But mere profession is not piety ; and morality, howsoever exalted, is not by itself piety ; and church- membership and partici- pation of church ordinances, and rehgious sentiment and fervour, and an outwardly blameless life, tliese are not piety. There may be the perfection of knowledge, and of gifts, and the comely adornment of all that is amiable and attractive to the eye of man,

100 LECTURE IV.

and yet the person who is possessed of these may have neither part nor lot in the matter, and be far from the kingdom of heaven.

To be a disciple indeed, is to have been ^'-A.1 t/i^ wholly divested of self, and intimately united by faith to the Saviour ; it is to have been convinced of one's lost and perishing condition by nature and by practice ; it is to have been led, in a trembling sense of guilt and un worthiness, to repose upon the finished atonement and righteousness of Jesus as the only plea for pardon and for acceptance; it is to have had the heart changed by the mighty operation of the Holy Ghost ; the will conformed to the Divine will ; the affections elevated from the ensnaring influ- ence of earthly things, and fixed supremely upon God as the satisfying portion of the soul; it is to have been weaned from the love of this present world and brought to pursue with steadfast zeal the race which the Gospel sets before us ; it is to have em-

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 101

barked upon a warfare against the sinful lusts of the flesh, and the temptations of the world and the devil ; it is to have chosen Christ for our Lord and Master, our Saviour and King ; it is to walk by the guidance of the Spirit ; to aim, in dependence upon His aid, to perfect holiness in the fear of God, and daily to exhibit the life of a stranger and pilgrim whose home is in heaven, and whose rest is beyond the grave.

To ascertain whether we have these marks of true discipleship ; to determine our real standing in Christ, whether we can say, as with the Apostle of old, — " Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee ; " ^ this is the first object of a Christian's self-examination.

Let it be supposed, however, that this point is satisfactorily ascertained ; the busi- ness of self-examination does not end here. To acquire meetness for heaven is no tri- fling or momentary employment ; every

1 John, xxi. 17.

102 LECTURE IV.

Christian grace, be it faith, hope, love, meekness, zeal, knowledge, or any other of the manifold fruits of the Spirit, has to be developed and matured. It is the advance- ment of this process which, properly speaking, constitutes growth in grace. Self-examina- tion must be resorted to in order to detect where there is most of failure ; where there is least satisfactory progress ; what is the sin which most easily cleaves to us ; what is the temptation which most frequently prevails ; where we have most need of vigilance or of perseverance? In the business of self- examination the Christian must strive to ascertain where he most fails of what might be justly expected of him ; how far he is coming short of the great end which, as a disciple of Jesus, he has proposed to him- self; in what point he is most w^anting, as one whose untiring aim it should be to make his calling and election sure. Need we add, that each discovered failure should afford fresh ground for deep humiliation.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. 103

and for earnest resolve, in Divine strength, to correct what is amiss, and to avoid the occasion of past disobedience ? It is in this way that self-examination will minister to that watchful circumspection which in its turn will contribute to advancement in holi- ness ; or, in other words, to growth in grace.

One remark with respect to the frequency with which self-examination ought to be performed : surely no one who is eager to preserve a high degree of spirituality, and to grow in the Divine life, will readily let a single day pass without some scrutiny at its close as to the prevailing bent of his thoughts, words, and actions.

The evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving should be combined with meditation and self -inquiry. Special sea- sons naturally demand, however, a more dihgent and careful exercise of its duty. From time to time it is well, therefore, to enter upon its discharge with greater minuteness. Such periods will naturally sug-

104 LECTURE IV.

gest themselves to any reflecting mind. The recurrence of special anniversaries may fitly be turned to profitable account for this pur- pose : the close of a year, or the commence- ment of a fresh term of earthly existence, seem fitting periods for some special inquiry. How have we advanced in our spiritual pil- grimage ? — nearer to eternity, are we riper for heaven ? The Apostle's precept points to sacramental seasons as also appropriate for more than ordinary diligence in self- scrutiny. The weekly return of the sabbath may be embraced as a period peculiarly fitted for careful self-examination, and ear- nest resolve to cleave with full purpose of heart to the Lord.

But oh, how fruitless will all these en- deavours prove — how utterly ineffectual to advance our spiritual progress, except as we continually recognise our need of the Spirit's help ! It is man's part to spread the sail, but the breath of heaven must swell the canvass and waft the vessel onward. Dear

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brethreD, I long for you each to feel more and more of your dependence upon the Holy Spirit. What are all means without his energising presence ? They are but as empty forms, and worse than unprofitable ceremo- nies. Blessed be God, however. He can make any mean effectual to accomplish mighty results. He can transform the most barren wilderness into the fertile and luxuriant garden, making the desert to blossom as the rose. He can eradicate the most deeply- rooted corruption, elevate the most debased form of human nature, purify the most cor- rupt heart, and sanctify the most rebellious will. When He wrought by the preaching of Peter, three thousand souls were converted in one day. Wheresoever His presence abides, though, like the wind, we may hear the sound thereof but know not whence it comes nor whither it goes, the effects will appear in the new creation ; in the resurrec- rection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.

LECTURE V.

EELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE.

Luke, xxiv, 3Q.

Did not our heart bum within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ?

Our subject this morning is religious inter- course, considered as a mean of spiritual improvement ; religious converse maintained between the Lord's people, and upon the subject of their common hopes, their com- mon duties, their common fears, and their common prospects.

In the words which I have just read, we find allusion to one effect which may be expected to flow from such intercourse as

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 107

that to which reference is now made. The occasion upon which they were spoken must be famihar to us all. He who had pre- sented upon earth a faultless example, in whom there was no guile, and who spake as never man spake, had accomplished His great act of redeeming love : through dying upon the cross, He had expiated human transgression, and presented a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satis- faction, for the sins of the whole world. His immediate disciples, hampered by prejudice and remaining unbelief, were ready to give up all for lost, when they beheld Him expire. Utterly forgetful of prophecies which had foretold, and of the many types which had prefigured the event, they could see in the death of their Master nothing less than the destruction of every hope which they had cherished respecting Him as the Saviour of Israel. They were ready in a moment to conclude that all the evidences which He had put forth of

108 LECTURE V.

Messiahship were as nothing ; that He was a deceiver, and that they had been de- ceived. Expectation of His resurrection they had none. They had been graciously in- deed forewarned against despair, through being assured that upon the third day He would rise again. Yet, in spite of this, they gave themselves up to despondency, and in the tumult of the anguish which our Lord's death occasioned, they had neither hope nor faith sufficient to grasp the reality of His conquest over the grave.

The chapter before us relates what oc- curred upon the third day after the Saviour's death, the day upon which Christ actually broke the bands of the sepulchre. Two of the disciples were walking together to Em- maus, a small village not far from Jerusalem. As they journeyed onward they were over- taken by Jesus Himself, although they recognised Him not, but took Him for a stranger. Sorrow of heart often makes friends of strangers ; and the events which

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 109

had recently occurred in Jerusalem were of so public a nature, and so intimately con- cerned the whole nation of the Jews, that it is not to be wondered at, the three began at once to converse upon them. Jesus having asked, " What manner of communi- cations are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" they instantly unfolded the burden of their grief and dis- appointment, plainly confessing the despair they were in on account of the decease of Him whom they trusted would have re- deemed Israel.

Jesus suffered them to spread before Him all their trouble ; and when they had made an end of doing so, He began to reason with them from that source to which He always appealed for the resolution of doubt or the rebuke of unbelief. " Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- cerning Himself."

No record of that exposition is preserved.

110 LECTURE V.

We can but ill imagine what must have been its power, beauty, simplicity, and per- suasiveness. At all events, it was followed by the kindling of fresh hope in the minds of His wondering companions ; the veil was removed from their understandings. At length " their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight." Then it was they exclaimed the one to the other, " Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scrip- tures?"

It will not be needful for me to allude at greater length to the circumstances con- nected with the first utterance of the text. It is enough to bear in mind that we have here an example of intercourse upon divine things maintained between Christ and His disciples, as they travelled together by the wayside. This intercourse resulted in a kind- ling of decayed fervour, a revival of drooping hope, and the dispersion of groundless fear.

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. Ill

The circumstances were doubtless pecu- liar, yet they may be regarded as furnishing a lesson to the value which Christians might often derive from converse upon the things of God, with the presence of Jesus by His own Spirit to cheer them, and the Scriptures of truth to furnish the ground of their mutual deliberation.

We now^ turn to the main subject before us in the desire, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to point out some of those blessings which may be reasonably expected to flow from rehgious intercourse between the dis- ciples of Christ. May the Holy Spirit be present to guide our endeavour, and to make the practical consideration of this subject instrumental to our spiritual profit !

1. Now "religious intercourse" stands closely connected with that association to- gether of the Lord's people, which is one badge and mark of their separation from the world, and of their discipleship to Jesus. One of the great dangers of the present day

112 LECTURE V.

arises from the breaking down in great measure of the barriers which divide the world, as such, from the professing Church of Christ.

The world has come to tolerate the form of godliness. It will allow men to assume that form without either reproach or ridi- cule. Hence it has come to pass, that the line of demarcation between the professing disciples of Jesus and the mass of the unconverted around them is far less visibly and clearly defined in practice than, judging from God's word, ought to be the case.

It is not that the world has become more religious, not that there is in the world a whit less of real and determined aversion to the things of God. But it is the policy of Satan not to oppose a mere form of religion ; a show of godliness will frequently satisfy the conscience, when, in place of furthering the soul's salvation, it helps onward its per- dition.

The world still lies in wickedness ; its

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 113

maxims are as much opposed as ever to the precepts of God's word ; its pleasures are as unsatisfying, its practice as corrupt.

On the other hand, the truth of God is unchangeable : according to that truth, the professing disciples of Jesus are summoned to be a distinct and peculiar people — to come out of the world, and to be separate ; though in the world, not to be of it ; to use this world as not abusing it ; to confess, with the saints of God in every age, that here they are but pilgrims and strangers, whose home is afar off, and whose citizenship is in heaven. The statements of God's word which bear upon the necessity of coming out from the world, and being separate, remain in their unmutilated integrity, and in all their unalterable force of signification. " The friendship of the world is enmity with God ; whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God."^

Now, declarations of this kind, howsoever

' James, iv. 4.

114 LECTURE V.

clearly deduced from Scripture, and how- soever closely they may be worded in Scrip- ture phraseology, are often deemed harsh, uncharitable, and narrow-minded. But, letting alone for one moment the consider- ation that in making them we are only adhering to the plain letter of revealed truth, it appears to me that true charity lies with those who avow and who act upon the truth contained in them ; and that it is a false charity which makes a behever in Scripture either speak or act otherwise.

Suppose now for one moment that in ordinary matters you knew a person to be in imminent peril of his hfe or property, or that you knew him to be infected with a malady which, unless arrested, would cer- tainly prove fatal, and which, moreover, might be easily spread by contact among others ; would it not be a spurious charity which, for the sake of sparing the feelings of a person so circumstanced, should hinder you from pointing out the peril, or from

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 115

telling him of what he was certainly exposed to, unless he took inamediate precaution to obviate the danger ? Now let jne apply this observation to the case of unconverted men, who compose the mass of the world ; only observing, that when we speak of the world in opposition to the Church of Christ, we intend all, without exception, of every shade and degree, whose hearts have not been changed by the converting grace of God, and whose lives are not conformed to the example of Christ, as set in contrast with those of every nation, of every clime, and every branch of the Redeemer's Church, who have been brought under the effectual operation of God the Holy Ghost.

Now, what does the truth of Scripture compel us to affirm respecting the former ? Why it compels us to affirm this, that no matter what may be the exemplary and irreproachable character which they bear to the eye of man, nevertheless, being uncon- verted, they are in the very gall of bitter-

116 LECTURE V.

ness and in the bond of iniquity ; that they are in peril of utter ruin for eternity ; that they are infected with a spiritual malady, which, unless arrested in its progress by the might of God's Holy Spirit, will inevit- ably involve them in perdition. Is it com- mon charity towards such men not to warn them of their peril ? Is it common charity to act in all respects as though we believed there was no broad difference between the child of God, the heir of heaven, and a child of Satan, the heir of perdition ?

And this is not the least amongst the strong reasons for a more rigid adoption of those precepts of God's word, which relate to the Christian's separation from the world that Heth in wickedness. It is true charity to the unconverted to let them know and feel that between them and the sincere dis- ciple of Jesus there is the widest possible distinction ; whereas if the unconverted ob- serve that the professing disciples of Christ can live, and speak, and act, just as though

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 117

there was no difference between them, as though thek prospects for eternity were equally bright, and their position equally secure, to what conclusion can they come if not that, when we speak of the uncon- verted as the objects of God's displeasure, and in peril of everlasting death, we are using figures of speech, which are not to be understood as literally true? If, however, there is to be separation from the world, there must be religious intercourse between the Lord's people ; there must be a con- sorting together, in the name of Christ, of those who in hope and faith are one ; there must be an interchange of thought and feeling respecting the common dangers against which each true disciple has to con- tend, the common foe which each has to withstand, and the common warfare which each has to prosecute. Rehgious inter- course is the very bond of separation from the world ; and it is owing, I believe, in no small degree, to the neglect of cultivating

118

LECTURE V.

such intercourse, bv the assembKus: of Christians tosjether in the name of Christ for hallowed communion respecting the things of God, for united praise and supplication, that the line of demarcation has been so lamentably lost sight of, and the Church of Chi'ist in these modern days has come to present ^o httle of that \-isible separation from the world which is one of the surest evidences that the Spmt of God is abiding in her midst.

Having said thus much respecting reh- gious intercourse in its influence upon sepa- ration from the world,, I would go on to enumerate other particulars, in which such intercourse may be regarded as helpful to the true believer. Here, again, let me borrow a lesson fi'om ordinary experience. Is it not invariably the case, if there be a subject in which you feel a deep interest, that interest is kept alive and increased by mutual converse with others to whom it is a matter of similar moment r B} conversing

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 119

upon the topic in which both are interested, an increase of fervour is thereby kindled ; mistaken or erroneous views are corrected ; knowledge is augmented; difficulties are dispersed ; our stock of information is im- proved. The subject gains a stronger hold, whether upon the reason, the judgment, or the affections, and it leaves a more settled and abiding impression. Shall it be so in ordinary matters, and why not in spiritual ? Is it not probable that similar effects will be produced where the theme of con- verse relates to the things of God and eternity ? In this way, be it observed, reli- gious truth comes to be felt in its living reality : whilst we merely hold the doctrines of Christianity as matters of belief upon which we never converse, it is impossible that they should possess, in our own view or in that of others, the same power and reality as when out of the very abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

In conversing upon the things of God,

120 LECTURE V.

there is a handling, as it were, of the pre- cious realities^ which the Gospel presents to the eye of faith. Moreover, it is not simply that religious intercourse has the efiPect of giving a reality to the hopes and the pro- spects of the behever ; there are yet other important ends, which religious intercourse greatly subserves. By conversing upon the truths of the Gospel, the hopes of the believer, his present conflicts, the dangers against which he has to guard, the helps which are vouchsafed to him, the victory he is enabled to gain, knowledge is augmented, the weak brother is strengthened, the timid emboldened, the sorrowful comforted. The experience of one and another is then made the property of many, and contri- butes either to the edification, the warning, or the consolation of all.

Moreover, it has been universally found that few things have a greater tendency to quicken religious fervour, to stimulate to

1 1 John, i. 1.

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 121

warmer zeal and more devoted obedience, than religious converse between the Lord's people. When an experienced Christian, for example, acting in the spirit of the Psalmist when he exclaimed, — " Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul;"^ when such an one, out of the treasures of his experience, pours forth his tribute of praise for the faithfulness of God to His every pro- mise, for the constancy of that forbearing love which has long borne with him, and never been wanting to supply him with grace according to his need, to uphold him under temptation, enable him for duty, support him in trial, or even to recover him when fallen ; is there not a power in such testi- mony to encourage, to animate, to quicken, or to console ? Then it is that those who have hitherto imagined that their own diffi- culties surpass what have ever been encoun- tered by others, — or that their own tempta-

1 Ps. Ixvi. 16.

122 LECTURE V.

tions are stronger than others have ever experienced, — or that their own infirmities and short-comings are more numerous, learn that Christian experience is much more uniform than they had ignorantly supposed ; and that those who, to the eye of their fellow - Christians, appear remote from the possibihty of having a fierce war- fare perpetually to maintain between the flesh and the Spirit, are, perhaps, the very men who can most sympathise, out of the fulness of their bitter experience, with the lament of the Apostle, — " The good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do."' Thence issue fresh springs of hope for the tempted, the timid, and afflicted ; learning that God is not deal- ing otherwise with them than He deals with His faithful servants in general, they drop their disquieting apprehensions, and lean with a fuller assurance upon the hope which is set before them in the Gospel; and 1 Rom. vii. 19.

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 123

as one and another recount what they have met with of the goodness, and the mercy, and the faithfulness of God, there is a kind- hng of fervour, and zeal, and of holy joy in God : so that the sharers of intercourse such as this can exclaim upon the review of it, "did not our heart burn within us" whilst one testimony after another was poured forth to the faithfulness of our covenant God?

It is thus that rehgious intercourse be- comes in reality helpful to spiritual pro- gress. All, no matter what their degree of Christian attainment, may derive profit from mutual converse upon divine things : there is a manifest tendency in such con- verse to revive the fervour of the lukewarm, to confirm the wavering, and to encourage the timid.

Such intercourse, let it be observed, is enjoined in Scripture by example as well as precept. David, for instance, exclaims, " I am a companion of all them that fear Thee,

124 LECTURE V.

and of them that keep Thy precepts."^ He chose for his associates those betwen whom and himself, in matters of religion, there was oneness of feeling and pursuit. " I will not know," he says, " a wicked person : mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me."- Allu- ding to intercourse with the Lord's people, he exclaims, " I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. "^ To the same effect he elsewhere declares, " We took sweet coun- sel together, and walked to the house of God as friends."* To converse of Divine things is one mark of sincerity : not, we admit, an infallible one : for there are those of whom we read as making great show with their lips, but in heart being far from God; yet, on the other hand, an Apo- stle testifies, " We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." ^

1 Ps. cxk. 63. 2 Ps. ci. 4, 6. 3 Pg. cxxii. 1.

* Ps. 1y. U. 5 Acts, iv. 20.

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 125

The prophet Jeremiah declared, " I said, I will not make mention of Hira, nor speak any more in His name. But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." ^ Malachi gives it as a description of the behevers of his day, " They that feared the Lord spake often one to another : and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name ;" whilst this promise was pronounced in their behalf — a promise which stamps Avith a seal of infinite preciousness the duty of religious intercourse — " They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. T/ie?i shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that

1 Jer.

XX.

126 LECTURE V.

serveth Him not."^ '( ^^^J^ssmk that is affirmed in Scripture respecting conversa- tion in general, and the right use of the tongue, has a direct bearing upon rehgious intercourse. To whom is it promised that the salvation of God shall be shown ? is it not to him that " ordereth his conversation aright ?"^ If we are to be justified or con- demned, as our Lord tells us, by our words,"^ ought not the subject of our converse with each other to be a matter over which we exercise the sharpest vigilance ? Is it not again a Scriptural proof, " Let your speech be alv/ay with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man ?"* And have we not the very model of Christian intercourse sketched by the Apo- stle, '' Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admo- nishing one another in psalms and hymns

1 Mai. iii. 16. ^ Matt. xii. 37.

- Ps. 1. 23. 4 Col. iv. 6.

RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE. 127

and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord ?"^

I trust it will have appeared from the foregoing review of the subject, that inter- course of a religious nature between the Lord's people is in itself a powerful means to aid the Christian in maintaining sepa- ration from the world, which is one badge of discipleship to Christ ; 1:hat it is also an important instrumentality for enlarging the sphere of spiritual knowledge, rectify- ing erroneous views, making the experi- ence of one profitable to many, inflaming Christian fervour, kindling the spiritual affections, deepening the impression of the reality of eternal things, guiding the per- plexed, infusing courage into the fearful, hope into the desponding, and comfort into the sorrowful, j But how, it will be asked, is this Christian intercourse to be maintained ? Are we to renounce all communion with those in whom we perceive no evidences of ' Col. iii. 16.

128 LECTURE V.

conversion ? Are we to desert the post of usefulness to which God hath called us in this life ? Certainly not, I reply : we are neither called to the one course nor to the other ; our hght is to shine before men, not to be concealed in secret. Christ did not pray that His disciples " should be taken out of the world, bat that they should be kept from the evil ;"' nor do I apprehend that even consistency in our Christian course requires that our religious views or experience should be at all seasons and under all circumstances obtruded upon the notice of others : but I do say this, that a true disciple of Jesus must not be ashamed, at any season and under any circumstances, in any place and before any company, to avow whose he is, and whom he serves. His light must shine : and if it be the pure light which is the reflexion of his Saviour's image, that light will be sure to discover itself in every scene. Even unconverted men will not be slow to

1 John, xvii. 15.

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discern that other motives are at work with the true behever than they are themselves actuated by, that other hopes are exerting an influence upon him, and other aims are pursued by him ; thus the hue of separation will be preserved, even in those matters in which, of necessity, the Christian is cast into association with men of the world. Need I say that the world's maxims, the world's amusements and pleasures, must be renounced? and here, at least, the sepa- ration will be so clear and well-defined, that the Christian in these matters cannot be confounded with the man of the world. Over and above this, if there be such a value in religious intercourse, ought there not to be effort made to obtain it? Why should not Christians more often meet toge- ther in the social circle — not to waste one hour after another in artificial, unsatisfying, and often irksome enjoyment, where to discourse of the solemn things of God and eternity, or to dilate upon the hopes and

K

130 LECTURE V.

the privileges of the believer, would by tacit consent be deemed altogether out of place, or would at once cast a damp on the circle, and throw a melancholy gloom on each countenance — why, as men in earnest to prosecute their soul's salvation and to lay hold of eternal life, should they not more often meet in holy fellowship, with this for their specific object ; to strengthen each other for their common warfare by mutual converse, prayer, and praise, in the full consciousness of meeting with a present Saviour, and of finding access through Him, by one Spirit, to the Father ? Why should not mention of the joys laid up for the righteous — the present privileges, the future glory of the believer — the splendour of the inheritance of the saints in light — why should not these be the topics, in discoursing upon which there is a responsive feeling in each heart of earnest rapture ? Why should not these be the subjects upon which our tongues grow eloquent, and in the contem-

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plation of which our hearts throb with eager emotion ?

Gatherings for converse such as this, many amongst us can testify, are seasons of spiritual refreshment ; they leave a savour behind them for good; they help us to realise more intensely the fact of our re- lationship one with another, and with Christ our spiritual head ; they help to scatter many an unworthy prejudice, and to dispel many a needless apprehension ; they con- duce to quicken within us a more fervent zeal, to make us burn with greater desire for that communion above, where intercourse with the holy shall be one of our noblest enjoyments, where we shall experience in all its amphtude of blessing that " Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." ^

' I John, i. 3.

LECTURE YI.

BAPTISM.

1 CoK. ii. 14. They are spiritually discerned.

In five preceding lectures your attention has been directed to the practical consider- ation of the ordinary means of grace ; ac- cording to the plan which I announced at the commencement of the course, the pre- sent and the concluding lecture — God wil- ling — will be devoted to the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

We speak of these as differing from the ordinary means of grace ; not because they have in themselves any inherent property to

BAPTISM. 133

communicate grace, but because they have connected with them certain visible signs of Christ's appointing, and they are such as man's wisdom could not of itself have devised.

It might have been easy beforehand to perceive that the ministry of the word — the exercise of prayer — the study of God's word — meditation upon divine things — and converse with the Lord's people, would be powerful auxiliaries to growth in grace. Mere human foresight, however, would not have invented the ordinance of Baptism, nor yet that of the Lord's Supper. These two institutions stand evidently sepa- rate from the other means of grace, having a virtue belonging to them which arises simply out of the fact that Christ appointed them to be signs and seals of spiritual blessing.

As the present and following lecture must of necessity turn upon the question of the Sacraments, and of the efficacy which

134 LECTURE VI.

pertains to them, it will not be deemed out of place if I detain you for a few moments with some observations relative to what is com- monly termed the doctrine of sacramental grace.

Now if I desired to point out in the strongest colours the pernicious conse- quences of receiving theological opinions from the writings of men, in place of fetching them pure from the fountain itself of revealed truth, I would point to the end- less disputations which have gone forward respecting the sacraments of the Christian religion.

It is painful to observe how these insti- tutions of Christianity have served to origi- nate the most fierce and vehement conten- tions. Were it possible for all classes in the Church of Christ calmly to divest their minds of preconceived prejudice, frankly to lay aside the opinions which they have formed from human teaching, and hearken meekly and dispassionately to what the

BAPTISM. 135

truth of God declares, I believe we should then find difficulties quickly vanish away; extreme opinions upon either side, having no support in revelation, would no longer be held with such pertinacity ; and all bor- rowing their belief from the living oracles of God, would find themselves agreeing in doctrines which tend to abase the sinner and to exalt the Saviour.

It is well known there are many at the present day who avowedly regard what is termed the sacramental system as the key- stone in the arch of Christianity; men who, having adopted what I cannot but deem an exaggerated view^ of their efiicacy, seem to think that if one jot is bated of the homage which they pay to the sacra- ments, Christianity thereby receives a deadly wound.

I trust, however, it may be one good re- sult arising out of the strife and contro- versy to which these times are the witness ; namely, that multitudes of persons who

136 LECTURE VI.

have been heretofore incHned to pin their faith upon what this or that fallible teacher affirms, will be driven, in self-defence, to search more narrowly into what God's word says ; to consult the Scripture for themselves in earnest prayer for the Spirit's teaching, and take nothing for granted, and nothing as truth, in matters of reli- gious doctrine, but what may clearly and undeniably be proved from revelation itself.

Whoever manfully applies himself to such investigation — laying aside every precon- ceived opinion, and simply hearkening to what the Lord God, by the Spirit, through the instrumentality of the written word, shall teach — will probably find that he has been in the habit of taking much upon mere human authority which is unsupported by Scripture, if not in direct opposition to what Scripture reveals.

Eor example, it is surprising to my own mind, to hear or read the strange things which are frequently stated respecting

BAPTISM. 137

sacramental efficacy ; to discover how little authority there is of Scripture to support those statements, and how little ground there is in God's word for exalting the sacraments to such an elevation above the other and the ordained means of grace.

What text is there, or what collection of texts, to prove that the two sacraments which Christ appointed have a pre-eminence so great that these are to be spoken of as the means of grace, through the diligent use of which alone salvation can be ob- tained ?

I confess that, for my own part, I am quite at a loss to discover any plain passages of Scripture which warrant the exalted lan- guage in w^hich you not unfrequently hear mention made of the sacraments.

Let us be careful, however, lest in depre- cating one error we fall into an opposite. I hold it unquestionably to be a serious error to attribute to the sacraments, whether

138 LECTURE VI.

of Baptism or of the Lord's Supper, an unrivalled superiority over the other means of grace : and yet, at the same time, they are means of grace ; they are not mere ar- bitrary appointments without any real design or significance : if every type and shadow under the Levitical economy had its deep spiritual import, surely we may conclude that the symbols which are appointed under the Christian dispensation have their spiri- tual import also; moreover, the nature of the sign in both sacraments has such a clear, figurative adaptation to spiritual bles- sing, that I feel warranted in the belief there is a real relation between the emblem and the thing signified.

Our general behef, then, in regard of the sacraments, is this, that they are both outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace ; which signs were appointed by our blessed Lord Himself, to be not only out- ward tokens of spiritual blessing, but also

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means whereby the assurance of that bles- sing is conveyed to the soul of the worthy recipient. The use of them is generally necessary to salvation, inasmuch as it is enjoined by Christ, and cannot lawfully be dispensed with where the ordinance can be obtained.

Two errors in respect of the sacraments we have specially to avoid ; the one is that of undervaluing, and the other is that of over-estimating, their importance. The or- dinance, whether it be that of Baptism or of the Lord's Supper, is undervalued whenso- evefr it is regarded as a mere sign, or a mere commemorative institution. The ordi- nance, on the other hand, is over-estimated when it is regarded either as the sole chan- nel by which grace is conveyed to the soul, or as possessed in itself of any intrinsic importance ; so that the communication of spiritual blessing cannot but attend its out- ward reception.

"The sacraments are useful only when

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God gives effect to them, and displays the power of His Spirit using them as instru- ments; if any good is conferred upon us by the sacraments, it is not owing to any proper virtue in them, even though in this you should include the promise by which they are distinguished ; it is God alone who acts by His Spirit : when He uses the instrumentality of sacraments, He neither infuses His own virtue into them, nor derogates in any respect from the effectual working of His Spirit ; but, in adaptation to our weakness, uses them as helps — in such manner, however, that -the whole source of acting remains with Him alone : wherefore, as Paul reminds us that neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is anything, but God alone that giveth the increase ; so also it is to be said of the sacraments, that they are nothing, because they will profit nothing, unless God in all things make them effectual. They are, indeed, instruments by which God acts

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efficaciously when He pleases, yet so that the whole work of our salvation must be ascribed to Him alone." -

The foregoing remarks, with reference to the nature and the efficacy of the sacra- ments in general, will be found to have a practical bearing upon the consideration which now comes before us of the sacra- ment of Baptism in particular. With the history of the institution of this ordinance it is needless for me to detain you at any length ; its origin dates from the period when Christ gave the command to His Apostles to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. The practice of baptizing converts to the Jewish faith had, indeed, existed long before. We learn from ancient history that no proselytes were admitted into fellowship with the Jews, even before the coming of Christ, without a baptism. John, the forerunner of Christ, used the ceremony of baptism for the ad- mission of persons to be disciples of Him

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whom it was his office to herald; but it was not until Christ was about to leave the earth that He invested the ordinance with a sacramental character, and gave to it that importance to which it has ever since been entitled in the Christian Church.

Trom that period it has been the outward form of admission to the visible Church of Christ ; it occupies the same position under the Christian dispensation which circum- cision did under the Jewish. The child of Jewish parents was not reckoned to be in full communion with the Jewish Church unless he was circumcised according to Divine appointment ; precisely in the same manner, the child of Christian parents is to be baptized, in order to his being visibly enrolled amongst the professing servants of the Saviour.

Baptism, in the early periods of the Christ- ian Church, became the badge of discipleship to Christ in a very marked and pecuhar manner. When, for example, either a Jew

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or a Gentile came and professed a desire for this rite, and when he pubUcly sub- mitted to it, his doing so amounted to an open renunciation of Judaism or of heathen- ism, and to an open adjoining of himself to the flock of Christ. Bear in mind the cir- cumstances of that period, and you will readily perceive how^ improbable it was that any should come and receive baptism who were not in reality desirous to give up all for the sake of Christ. Baptism in those days exposed to unrelenting hostility and persecution for Christ's sake ; the result was that, generally speaking, the administration of the ordinance was much more closely connected with the presence of the Spirit's grace than when, in a more estabhshed state of the Christian Church, it is a ceremony which exposes its recipient to no kind of persecution or reproach.

Baptism, then, is the door of admission into the visible Church of Christ. If you were to go to some distant tribe of heathens,

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and preach amongst them, for the first time, the unsearchable riches of Christ ; and if the preaching was to be blessed, so that one and another declared a willingness to re- nounce idolatrous practices and embrace the religion of Jesus, you would tell them at once that, as a sign of their profession, they must submit to be baptized, and that bap- tism would be the visible token of their admission into the fold of Christ's Church. Baptism, however, is more than this ; it is more than a mere external symbol which certifies to the recipient his outward admis- sion to membership with Christ's Church ; it is a channel through which grace may be communicated. Here we must not attempt to penetrate too narrowly into the hidden and secret things, which belong only to the Lord our God. I do not pretend to ex- plain how it is that this or the other sacra- ment becomes a vehicle for the communi- cation of grace, but the circumstance that Christ has appointed this rite is sufficient

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to determine the point that baptism is a mean of grace, through which spiritual blessing may be earnestly sought by faith- ful supplication.

Here, however, it will be asked, What is the nature of the blessing which may be looked for from the use of this ordinance ? I reply to that question by saying, that I cannot assign any limit whatever to the blessing which God may be pleased to con- vey through the ordinance of baptism. God acts as a sovereign Lord : He may be pleased, in answ^er to the prayer of faith, to employ this instrumentally to convey the highest spiritual blessing of which man can be the recipient. In the exercise of His sovereign grace, and according to the purpose of His own will. He may connect the faithful use of this ordinance with the bestowment of spiritual regeneration in its highest and most comprehensive sense; and, believing that God may so far honour His owu ordi- nance as thus to make it the vehicle of

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blessings so transcendent, it is plainly man's part to use it in faith and hope, with earnest prayer and supplication, not unmingled with hearty praise and thanksgiving.

At the same time, whilst admitting all this, I feel equally bound to reject, as anti- scriptural and most pernicious teaching, the doctrine either that spiritual regeneration can be effected only through baptism, or that spiritual regeneration is a result which always follows upon baptism ; either of these tenets we reject, as opposed to revelation, derogatory to the honour of God, and flatly contradicted by daily experience. First of all, what do we mean by the term " spi- ritual regeneration ?'' Does it signify no- thing more than a change of state ? or does it imply a real change of heart and nature, which issues in a life devoted to the service of Christ ? Now, " regeneration" is a term which occurs only twice in the whole of Scripture; once in the 19th of Matthew and the 28th verse, where it has plainly

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nothing whatever to do with baptism, and once in the 3d of Titus and the 5th verse, where, just as plainly, it has nothing what- ever to do with the baptism of infants. But although the term "regeneration" only occurs twice in Scripture, its equivalent terms occur frequently ; those terms being, " born again," " born from above," and " born of God :" consequently, if we can find any clear definition of these terms, we may fairly accept that definition as applying equally to *' spiritual regeneration."

I appeal, then, to Scripture ; and from the General Epistle of John I gather these broad and intelligible definitions of the term, — " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." ^ Again : " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God ;"^ "Whatsoever ^ 1 John, iii. 9. 2 1 John, v. ] .

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is born of God overcometh the world ;"^ "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not ; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not."~ Trom these statements I gather, that " the being born of God," or, in other words, " the being spiritually regenerate," is invari- ably connected with the renunciation of sin, with faith in Jesus and victory over the world; and what are these but the evidences and tokens of genuine conver- sion? Such, then, is spiritual regenera- tion ; it will be marked by these effects wherever it exists. And now I have only to ask, — Does every baptized person ex- hibit these fruits? and if not, how or by what possible mode of interpretation can the truth of God's word be reconciled with the doctrine that every baptized person is spiritually regenerate? I have never yet met with any one who could fairly dispose of this argument ; and to my own mind it 1 ] John V. 4. 2 1 John, v. 18.

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has all the weight of an unanswerable de- monstration. It seems to me conclusively to prove that spiritual regeneration is no necessary or inseparable consequence of baptism, however correctly that rite may be administered.

Neither is baptism the only instrument- ality through which spiritual regeneration is ordinarily produced ; spiritual regeneration is attributed in Scripture to other agencies. "As many as received Him," T\Tites the Evangelist, "to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that beheve on His name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the \Yi\\ of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." ' Is there any allusion here to baptism? Baptism had not been instituted at the period to which these words relate. Is not the adop- tion to sonship ascribed to the will of God, acting through faith upon Jesus, and that faith itself the result of Divine grace ? Again,

1 John,i. IQ.

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does not Peter address his converts as those who had been "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever ?"^ Again, is it not undeniable that in a number of instances all the signs and marks of spiritual regeneration have been presented anterior to the rite of baptism being administered ? Was not Paul spiritu- ally regenerated before he was baptized? Was not the eunuch, whom Philip bap- tized ? — was not the gaoler? — were not Cor- nelius and his household, respecting whom Peter affirmed, '' Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we ?""

Is there an intelligent missionary at the present day who would dream of baptizing a fresh convert from amongst the heathen, unless thoroughly satisfied first of his being in deed and truth a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus ?

' 1 Pet. i. 23. 2 Acts, x. 47.

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We conclude, then, that notwithstanding the warrant which there is to beheve that baptism, being an ordinance of Christ's ap- pointment, may be, and perhaps frequently is, honoured as an instrument for the spi- ritual regeneration of the recipient ; yet to maintain either that baptism is the only instrumentality for effecting this indispe n- able change, or that spiritual regeneration is the invariable consequence of baptism, is to maintain a tenet which is neither in agreement with common experience nor yet with the testimony of revelation itself.

The Scriptures attribute spiritual regene- ration to other instrumental causes besides baptism ; and daily experience proves that a person may be a baptized Christian and yet practically a heathen — a servant of Christ by profession, and yet the bond-slave of sin and Satan. ~-

Let me endeavour, before concluding, to point out the practical use which we may each individually make of baptism, as a help

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to personal growth in grace. Let it not be said, that in making the foregoing statement I am teaching doctrine opposed to that which the Church of England holds. Many persons at the present day display the keenest sen- sitiveness if a syllable is uttered which appears to contradict the Prayer-book. Do not let us run into the error of idolising the Book of Common Prayer. I believe that, upon the whole, a purer, more comprehen- sive, more devotional, more scriptural Litiirgy than that which the Church of England pos- sesses never has been compiled. It possesses all the gold of antiquity, with little or none of its dross and imperfection. At the same time the Prayer-book is a human compila- tion, and the Bible is God's word. We are not to interpret the Bible by the Prayer- book ; on the contrary, we are to bring the Prayer-book up to the test of Scripture There are expressions in that Prayer-book, the strength of which may perhaps be re- gretted, but the explanation of which is

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easy, when we recollect the circumstances under which it was originally compiled. Meanwhile there is at least satisfaction in knowing that it has been authoritatively decided by that which, as members of the Church of England, we are bound to recog- nise as the supreme court of appeal, — by those, moreover, most capable of coming to an impartial decision on the matter, that the language of the Prayer-book, even in those parts which approach nearest to dogmatic assertion, is to be interpreted according to the rule of charitable assumption, and not of absolute, unqualified declaration.

To return, however, to the question before us. Ordinarily speaking, spiritual regenera- tion does not take place in baptism, but at some subsequent period of life. If I am now addi'essing many w^ho through the grace of God have become spiritually regenerate, it is probable that your own experience corro- borates this ; you can look back upon some period, and upon some providential deahng.

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as the time and the method of your con- version to God : with what feehngs may you regard your baptism? May you so contemplate the fact of your having been baptized into the name of Christ, as from thence to derive the incentive to increased devotion in the service of your Redeemer ? TJndouhtedly you may. I would have you revive the recollection of having been dedi- cated to God in the season of infancy. Then you were solemnly given to Christ ; then the name of the Sacred Trinity was named upon you; then you were signed with the sign of the cross, in token that you should never be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ and Him crucified. Then it was engaged in your behalf that you should renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh. Revive, I say, the recollection of this solemn dedication. Though the privileges to which it introduced you were long despised, and the responsibility it laid upon you long neglected, yet now strive to grasp the one

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and to fulfil the other in the strength of the Holy Spirit; let the covenant en- gagement of baptism form the subject of close and of earnest self-examination : Am I walking worthy of the vocation wherewith I am called ? Have I renounced, — am I re- nouncing, the world and its thousand en- snaring temptations ; the flesh, with its manifold lusts ; and the devil, whose devices are so crafty and so many ? The vows of your baptism appeal to you ; by those vows you are the servant of Christ : shall they be trampled under foot or forgotten ? or, rather, shall they not form the motives for redou- bled exertion, in giving all diligence to make your calling and election sure ? Let baptism remind you of the need that you should be cleansed by the blood of Jesus from all sin, and purified by the operation of God the Holy Ghost. Baptism held forth to you the offer of great and precious privileges; it seemed to whisper of enrolment into that mystic body of which Christ is the hving

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Head ; of adoption into the family of God, and of a citizenship in heaven. True, the offer will only serve to increase your ultimate condemnation, unless, in the might of God's Spirit, you are enabled to fulfil the condi- tions annexed to this covenant of grace. Yet now "stir up the gift of God which is in thee ; " and by the privileges, the responsi- bilities, the hopes connected with a visible dedication to Christ's service — the increased guilt which cannot but be incurred through neglect of baptismal engagements — by all these strive, God helping you, to " grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

LECTURE VIL

THE LORDS SUPPER.

1 Cor. X. 16.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

The subject for our practical meditation this morning is the Holy Communion, con- sidered as a mean of grace to promote the believer's spiritual welfare.

The declaration of St. Paul contained in the words I have now read is appropriate to the subject before us. It relates to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and speaks of that ordinance as a communion, or a fel-

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low -partaking, of the body and blood of Christ.

Before adverting to the main topic of discourse I would observe, that no one who carefully examines the context could easily fall into the Popish error of maintaining that the outward elements in the Lord's Supper become actually transformed into the substance which they are designed to represent.

It is true that the Apostle here speaks of the communion of the blood and also of the body of Christ; but in the next verse he uses an expression which is inconsistent with the tenet of the Romanists respecting an actual change of the elements into the literal body and blood of the Saviour. "We," he affirms, "being many, are one bread and one body ; for we all are parta- kers of that one bread." It is evident that Paul here speaks of the consecrated element as still bread, notwithstanding its having been set apart to prefigure the body of

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Christ. Hence the passage affords no war- rant for the modern opinion of the Roman- ists, that the elements are changed from bread and wine into the actual body, soul, and divinity of Christ. The language of the Apostle, if fairly considered, affords a refu- tation of that assumption, — "We, being many," he declares, " are one bread." How is that expression to be understood, if no method of interpretation but the literal can in any case be adopted ?

The doctrine of transubstantiation does so much violence to common sense, that upon that account alone it deserves to be repudi- ated as false. There is a broad fallacy in the attempt to place this doctrine upon the list of mysterious truths which have a claim to be received, notwithstanding they surpass the limits of man's comprehension. It is very true that revelation requires us to believe much that is beyond the reach of the human mind to comprehend or explain ; at the same time revelation does not require

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US to believe anything which is plainly re- pugnant to sense, or which may be proved irreconcileable with the conclusions of human reason. But the doctrine of transubstantia- tion is so irrational, it ofiPers such violence to the evidence of our own senses, that were there no other ground but this for rejecting the tenet it would be amply sufficient. The same method of interpretation by which the Church of Rome defends the doctrine of transubstantiation, if generally acted upon, would make us believe in a hundred absur- dities equally opposed to the testimony of reason and common sense. If I am to take the expression of Christ, " This is my body," in its literal sense; if — i. e. accord- ing to the creed of the Romanist — I am to believe, that when Christ uttered those words the bread which he then held in his hand was actually His body, even though His body was whole and unbroken ; ac- cording to the same mode of interpret- ation I might affirm that the literal cup, of

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which Christ said, " This cup is the New Testament," was a literal book ; or that when He said, " I am the door," He really was a Hteral door ; or that when Daniel ex- claimed to Nebuchadnezzar, " Thou art this head of gold," he meant that Nebuchad- nezzar was hterally the golden top of an image ; or that when Paul, speaking of the rock in the desert, wrote, " That rock was Christ," he intended to affirm that it was the real Christ, and not a real rock which Moses struck in the wilderness.

It is a favourite theme with Romanists to boast of the antiquity of their creed. There is nothing in their creed against which we protest which cannot be proved to be novel compared with what the Apostles taught. The doctrine of transubstantiation, for example, was not introduced till the eighth century ; nor was it fully defined and authorised till the sixteenth. It is a doctrine at variance with the plainest de- ductions of reason, and is not only unautho-

M

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rised by Scripture, but it is actually opposed to Scripture : it goes to overturn the nature of a sacrament 1 by converting that which was intended to be a sign into the thing itself which the sign is to represent. It is the foundation of the idolatrous rite of the mass, and therefore one of the broad and unmistakeable proofs of the apostasy and corruption of the church by which the tenet is held, and enforced upon the belief of every one of her members.

It is unnecessary, however, to say another word upon this topic, at least upon the pre- sent occasion. I would scarcely have made the foregoing observations if it were not that the circumstances of the present times, the effrontery of Rome in putting forward her claims, the treachery of many within our own church, who, in place of driving away error, are endeavouring to lead others into it, make it the more necessary to omit no opportunity for reminding of the difference 1 See Article XXVIII.

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between Popish error and Protestant truth ; between the doctrines which the Church of Rome teaches and those which are drawn from the imperishable records of God's revealed will.

The question we have now to consider relates to the Lord's Supper as a mean of grace; what reason is there for regarding this ordinance as an appointed vehicle for spiritual profit ? And if it be a mean of grace, what are the precautions in the obser- vance whereof we may the more confidently anticipate the blessing ?

You will easily call to mind the observa- tions which I recently made upon the sub- ject of the sacraments in general. I stated my conviction that there is little or no Scriptural warrant to regard either of the sacraments as means of grace in such a pre- eminent degree that they are vehicles of grace, which cannot be otherwise derived than by their use. There seems to be in the minds of many persons a prevalent notion that the

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sacraments have a peculiar and extraordi- nary virtue, so that grace is to be sought from them which cannot be obtained from other channels. I find no Scriptural war- rant for that opinion. It would be easy to quote many testimonies from human writ- ings in confirmation of the sentiment ; but I place no confidence in human authors, except in so far as what they have written coincides with what the w^ord of God says.

And when I find writers at the present day treating of what they term the sacra- mental system, and writing of that system as though the truth of Christianity must stand or fall with their pecuhar views of sacramental grace, I am utterly at a loss to discover where the authority of revelation is to warrant or to support such a doctrine. I believe the sacraments, indeed, to be more than mere commemorative institutions. I believe them to be more than mere arbitrary and unmeaning symbols ; I believe them to be channels through which, in the faithful

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use of them, God may be expected ordina- j rily, although not of any necessity, to com- municate grace. The communication of that grace depends in part upon man's diUgence to use aright the appointed mean ; but it depends far more upon the sovereign will of God, who acts as He pleases, giving or , withholding grace according to His infinite ! wisdom, distributing that grace by what channels He sees best ; yea, and even with or without the use of any outward means whatsoever.

It is true that, generally speaking, God does not work without means ; yet we are not to suppose that He is confined to the use of them, still less are we to imagine that with God there is not a choice of instru- mentalities. Spiritual Regeneration, for ex- ample, may be connected with Baptism ; but it is frequently, as common expe- rience proves, connected with other means of grace. So, in like manner, although the right use of the Lord's Supper tends to the

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strengthening, refreshing, and nourishing of the soul, yet it would be at variance with Scripture and reason to conclude, on the one hand, that the Lord's Supper always con- duces to this result, or that the same result may not be attained by other means, which are equally of Divine appointment.

The Lord's Supper was instituted upon the evening before the crucifixion. Christ was celebrating the Passover with His twelve Apostles, and having partaken of the Pass- over cup, He afterwards took bread ; He blessed it, and brake it, distributing it to the Apostles, telling them to view it as a representation of His body, and enjoining them to observe the practice henceforward in remembrance of Him.

He did likewise with the wine, giving thanks, and directing the Apostles, all of them, to drink of it, as a representation of His blood shed for the remission of sins, and bidding them observe this rite also in remembrance of Him.

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From that period, down to the present time, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper has been a standing ordinance of the Christian Chui'ch. In substance it has been preserved the same as when Christ appointed it, throughout all ages, and in all countries, down to the present period. It has been celebrated in various scenes, and amid various circumstances. But the simple ordi- nance in the essential parts of it, namely, the partaking of bread and wine solemnly set apart to represent the broken body and the outpoured blood of the Saviour, this has been preserved from century to century in all the integrity of its first institution.

A stronger evidence could hardly be presented of the Divine origin of the insti- tution itself, or of the system whereof it is the part. What can have preserved an institution so simple in itself from the wreck and the ravage which time works upon all things else ? Since this and its kindred ordinance, that of Baptism, were

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first appointed, empires have been founded, have risen into glory and power, and then have decayed and sunk into obhvion ; cere- monies the most splendid and magnificent have been ordained, only, as it would seem, to pass into forge tfuln ess with the authors who devised them ; whereas the two sacra- ments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper remain like imperishable monuments, which the lapse of time cannot injure and the breath of decay cannot touch. They seem exempt from the common lot of all things human, and in this exemption itself lies an ever- growing evidence to the divinity of their origin.

The Lord's Supper may be regarded, then, as one of the standing evidences of Christ- ianity. It is a lively representation of the fact that once there died upon the cross One whose death was the expiation of human transgression. Wheresoever celebrated, it is an exhibition of the death of Jesus, from whence every spectator may learn the doc-

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trine of the Atonement, as founded upon the Redeemer's surrender of Himself to the cross and the grave.

Let it be imagined, for a moment, that a stranger altogether unacquainted with Christ- ianity was brought into one of our churches, where the Lord's Supper was just about to be celebrated ; let him ask the meaning of that solemn rite, and what answer could be given which should not refer to the history of human redemption, through the incarna- tion of a Divine Person, and the death of that Being as the substitute for guilty and perishing men ?

It is the office, indeed, of ministers to unfold the message of the Gospel, and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ; and wheresoever the truths of the Gospel are faithfully proclaimed, this is an exhi- bition presented of a crucified Saviour. But the celebration of the Lord's Supper, if properly regarded, though a silent, is by no means a less eloquent testimony of

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the same precious reality ; and whenso- ever that ordinance is observed, there is presented to the eye of the believing spec- tator as vivid an exhibition of Christ and Him crucified as though the cross were actually before him, with Jesus pouring out His soul unto death beneath the imputed load of human iniquity.

Thus the ordinance of the Lord's Supper is a constant remembrancer of the death of Christ ; it serves to perpetuate the recollec- tion of what He endured for our sakes ; and in the absence of other testimony this one institution of itself would serve to attest that sin has been atoned for through the vicarious sacrifice of the one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus.

To those who desire to profit by the ordi- nance, let me say, strive to regard it in this point of view ; when about to participate of this solemn festival, try and recall to mind the circumstances connected with its first appointment ; go back in thought to the

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scene around tliat Passover board between Christ and His Apostles, the night before He suffered ; bear in mind the agony which He endured in the garden and upon the cross ; and viewing in this ordinance a representation of what was then undergone by the Mediator in your stead, let the spec- tacle serve to inflame your love, to increase your faith, to enliven hope, and quicken every spiritual grace.

Nor is the Lord's Supper only a com- memoration of the death of Jesus, it is also a constant remembrance of His coming again. For eighteen centuries has this institution been preserved in the Christian Church, and it is destined to survive all other changes, up to the period of the Redeemer's second advent. " As often," said the Apostle, "as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come."^ It may be compared to a golden chain, of which the one end is 1 1 Cor. xi. 26.

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fastened to the cross on Calvary, and the other to the chariot of cloud upon which the Redeemer will descend in His glory. It is a column erected amid the waste of centuries, inscribed with the double memo- rial of the Redeemer's humiliation and the Redeemer's triumph.

As we draw near to participate of this Holy Communion, not alone should our thoughts wander back to the scenes of Christ's sufFeriDg and shame, they should soar upwards into futurity, and rest amid those scenes of splendour and of triumph which mil be realised when Christ, as the bridegroom of the Church, shall come in His glorious majesty. May not the recol- lection of this scene, whensoever we partake of the Holy Communion, enkindle within us a more animating hope and a more vigorous faith? The Lord's Supper, simple as the institution in itself is, serves for an im- pressive memento of the crown of glory, not less than of the crown of thorns. The

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institution began upon Mount Calvary, but it will end upon the Mount of Olives ; in the retrospect it reminds of the agony and the woe, of the cross and the shame ; but looking onward to futurity, it reminds of all that is most blessed and most triumph- ant, to Christ and His whole redeemed Church.

I would further observe, respecting this ordinance, that it is a vivid representation of the vital union which subsists between Christ and the believer. The elements are set apart to prefigure the body and the blood of Christ : partaking of them in faith we spiritually feed upon Christ ; " we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us ; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us." The reality of our union vrith Jesus is brought home almost to our very senses ; the outward and the visible sign is a mean whereby we receive the inward and spiritual grace ; thus grace is strengthened, and the faithful recipient of the Lord's Supper departs from the Holy

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Communion with his perceptions of the sacri- fice of Jesus rendered more vivid and strong. Spiritually discerning in the outward ele- ments the emblems of the body and the blood of Jesus, he gains a livelier appre- hension of the truth that the body was broken and the blood shed for him; and from hence springs a firmer trust, a deeper love, and a more ardent hope : whilst the recollection that this ordinance is also a memento of the Saviour's return in glory, awakens the resolve to be found watching and dihgent in the Master's work, that so an abundant entrance may be administered into the kingdom of our God and Saviour.

If such be the nature of the ordinance, and such the benefits to be derived from its faithful participation, how important to engage in it aright, so as not to fail of the blessing! The time would not allow me to dwell upon the various reasons which ought to make every true Christian a con- stant communicant ; nor can I pause now

THE lord's supper. 175

for the purpose of meeting the various ob- jections which sometimes weigh with even professing Christians to keep them aloof from the discharge of a duty so plain and imperative. The command of Christ ought to be with every disciple a sufficient motive for coming to the Lord's table. No excuse ought to hinder from coming which will not abide the day of judgment, when an account must be rendered to the Searcher of all hearts. Let it not be imagined, how- ever, that we either advise or recommend all professing Christians, indiscriminately, to approach the Lord's table. I do not urge the mere professor, or the mere formalist, or the self-righteous, or the profane, to come thither ; there is not a more soul-hardening process than that of frequenting the Holy! Communion when a person does not come with right views, or in a right state of mind : in the wrong use of this ordinance by the worldly-minded or the pharisaical pro- fessor, the soul becomes petrified, less and

176 LECTURE VII.

less pervious to the impression of divine truth, more confirmed in the unconcern or the prejudice, in the irrehgion or the spi- ritual pride, which offers the most impene- trable barrier to the reception of saving truth. But if there be a deep and genuine conviction of sin ; if there be a self-loathing because of transgression ; if there be a con- scious sense of utter unv^^orthiness ; if there be a total abandonment of self, and a wil- lingness to repose upon Jesus as the sinner's only security and hope; if there be a de- termination to plead on the strength of nothing else but His atoning merit, and to seek salvation through that faith on Him alone, Avhich, being wrought in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, is sure to be evidenced by a life of growing conformity to the example of Jesus ; to such an one we say, " Draw near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith;" use the out- ward and visible sign as a confirmation of your trust in the power and the wilhn^ness

THE lord's supper. 177

of Jesus, not alone to obliterate by His atoning blood every trace of guilt, but also to clothe you with that unsullied robe of His imputed merit, which shall enable you to stand without fault in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And yet even to you I would say, Come not without careful self-examination; come not without much and earnest prayer ; come not without many an inward resolve — without deep medita- tion upon the solemnity of the transaction : and this in order that you may realise that result for which as often as we communicate we earnestly pray, namely, "that aU we who are partakers of this Holy Communion may be fulfilled with God's grace and heavenly benediction."

And here I close the present series of Lectures, in which I have endeavoured, with as much simplicity as possible, to call your attention to a practical consideration of the various means of grace. I trust that our meditations upon this topic have not

N

178 LECTURE VII.

been altogether unblest ; some cheering evidences have reached me in confirmation of this behef. If one sentence has been spoken to the spiritual profit of any amongst you, to God be all the glory ; He can, and not unfrequently does, bless the feeblest means and the weakest instrumentahty.

May we all derive a stronger convic- tion of the importance and necessity of a dihgent use of the means of grace : ordi- narily speaking, it is by this that grace is increased and strengthened ; at all events duty is plain, not to neglect the means, even though assured that God is not con- fined to them for the bestowment of His best blessings. The public means of grace are of vast importance, but the private means of grace are of not less moment. If these be neglected, the others will be of little or no value ; prayer in the church will never supersede the necessity of prayer in secret alone with God : listening to the word of God, whether read or preached, will never

THE lord's supper. 179

compensate altogether for the lack of reading and pondering upon the word of God in private. Whilst we would not have you live in the neglect of any of these means of grace, chiefly I would have you dih- gent in the use of private prayer, and reading, and meditation : religious revivals and religious declensions always begin in secret ; if the habit of private prayer, or reading, or self-examination be neglected, grace is sure to decline, and spiritual fer- vour to grow chill.

After all, let it be borne in mind that rehgion is no easy matter ; that heaven is not to be entered except through a course of continued opposition to evil without us, and evil yet more formidable within. Thanks be to God, it is '' by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God."^ Let us be diligent, then, to improve grace already given : if we employ to His glory what God bestows, He

1 Ephes. ii. 8.

180 LECTURE VII.

will surely bestow more. At length grace itself shall ripen into glory, and we who have found it necessary here to trim the lamp of faith, in the use of appointed means, shall hereafter have our faith lost in vision, and hope in ample, yea blessed, fruition.

London :— Printed by G.Barclat, Castle St. Leicester I

List of Works by the same Author.

BIBLE LANDMARKS.

Four Sermons on Justification and the Rule of Faith, preached in St. John's Church, Clapham Eise, during the month of October, 1850.

\

POPERY AND THE REFORMATION.

Two Sermons preached in St. John's Church, Clapham Rise, on Sunday, November 5, 1848.

NATIONAL OBLIGATION TO THE BIBLE.

A Lecture delivered before the " Young Men's Christian Association,' December 3, 1850.

PAPAL AGGRESSION.

A Sermon preached in St. John's Church, Clapham Pdse, on Thursday Evening, November 14, 1850.

THE BEARING OF COMMERCE UPON THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.

A Lecture delivered before the " Young Men's Christian Association," in Exeter Hall, December 5, 1848.

THE WEEKLY VISITOR AND CHRISTIAN FAMILY READER.

A Magazine for Christian Families, District Visitors, Sunday-School Teachers, and Parochial Libraries.

Tn Weekly Numbers, sixteen pages, 8j;o., \\d., and in Monthly Parts.

Works published by T. HATCHARD,

LENT LECTURES.

1. SIX LECTURES on the BOOK of JONAH,

delivered in Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street, in March and April, 1833. By J. W. CUNNINGHAM, A.M., Vicar of Harrow. Fcp. boards, 3s.

II. TWELVE LECTURES, preached in St. George's Chapel, Old Brentford, in the Season of Lent 1844 and 1845. By the Rev. F. E. THOMPSON, B.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Incumbent of Old Brentford. 12mo. cloth, 5s.

" In a theological point of view his object is very successfully accom- phshed by Mr. Thompson. In a literary sense, the plan of the writer gives purpose, variety, and interest to his discourses. Biography and appUed moraUty are superadded to the general matter of a sermon. The style is agreeable — the manner rapid and impressive." — Spectator.

III.

A COURSE of SERMONS on the SIXTH CHAPTER of ISAIAH, preached during Lent 1845, at Wicken Church. By RICHARD LEA ALLNUTT,M.A., Missionary to India, and late Incumbent of Wicken, Cam- bridgeshire. 12mo. cloth, gilt edges, 2s. 6rf.

IV. The LIFE and CHARACTER of HEZEKIAH.

Considered in Six Lectures delivered during Lent 1830. By the late WILLIAM NICHOLSON, M.A., Rector of St. Mauiice, Winchester. Fcp. cloth, 3s. Qd.

V. SIX LECTURES on the PARABLE of the PRODIGAL SON, delivered in the Parish Church of Bradford Abbas, Dorset, during Lent 1830. By the Rev. ROBERT GRANT, B.C.L., Vicar of Bradford Abbas with Clifton-Maybank annexed, Fellow of Winchester College. Fcp. boards. 3s.

vr. EPHRAIM. A Course of Lectures delivered during Lent at the Octagon Chapel, Bath. By the Rev. F. ELWIN, Vicar of Temple, Bristol. 12mo. cloth, 3s.

Works jiiiblished by T. Hatchard.

VII.

The LAST THINGS ; being a Series of Lent Lectures on Death, the Grave, the Intennediate State, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven. By the late Eev. JOHN- SON GEANT, M.A., Eector of Binhrook, and Minister of Kentish Town Chapel. 12mo. boards, 6s.

VIII.

The CHRISTIAN'S EXAMPLE: as exhibited in the Life and Character of our Blessed Sa^^our Jesus Christ ; being a Coiu-se of Eight Sermons delivered in the Parish Church of Holywell, during Lent 1848. By HUGH JONES, M.A., Vicar of HolyweU, Hon. Canon of St. Asaph's, and late Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. Fop. cloth, 3s.

FOR PASSION WEEK. I. LECTURES on the SYMPATHIES, SUFFER- INGS, and EESUEEECTION of the LOED JESUS CHEIST, delivered during Passion Week and Easter Day. By HUGH M'NEILE, D.D., Hon. Canon of Chester, and Incumbent of St. Paul's, Princes' Park, LiveiTDOol. Third Edition. 12mo. cloth, 4s. 6d. II. OUR LORD'S LAST DAYS ON EARTH. Se- lected from the Evangelists. The Harmony taken from Chevalier Bunsen's " Andachtshuch." 8vo. cloth, 3s. III. PASSION WEEK; a Practical and Devotional Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles appointed for that Season, for the Closet and the Family. By the Eev. E. MEEK, M.A., Eector of St. Michael's, Sutton - Bonnington. 12mo. boards, 4s. IV. PASSION-WEEK LECTURES ; delivered in the Parish Church, Cheltenham. By the Eev. F. CLOSE, A.M,. Perpetual Curate. 12mo. cloth, 5s. V. THREE SERMONS on GOOD FRIDAY ; ^^•ith others on the Principal Festivals of the Church. By JOHN BIED, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Fifth Edition. 8vo. cloth, 10s. 6d.

Works published by T. Hatchard.

Miscellaneous.

I.

THOUGHTS on the LAND of the MORNING ; or, a Eecoid of Two Visits to Palestine, 1849-50. Illus- trated -ndth Plans and numerous Engravings. By H. B. W. CHURTON, M.A., Vicar of Icklesham, and Chaplain to the Bishop of Cliichester. Crown 8vo. This work has especial reference to the restoration of

Israel foretold in Ezekiel, and to the contrast between the

Babylon and Jerusalem of the Apocalypse.

II.

SERMONS. By the Rev. STUART ADOLPHUS PEARS, B.D., one of the Assistant-Masters of Harrow School, formerly Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxlord. 12mo. cloth, 5s. %d,

III.

A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION of St. PAUL'S EPISTLES to the THESSALONIANS, to TIMOTHY, TITUS, PHILEMON, and Ihe HEBREWS ; in the form of Lectures, intended to assist the Practice of Domestic Instruction and Devotion. By JOHN BIRD, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. In 8vo. or 2 vols. 12mo. Price 9s. The work is now completed in nine volumes 8vo., any

of which can be purchased sepai-ately.

IV.

THE STORY of RUTH. By the Rev. ASHTON OXENDEN, Rector of Pluckley. 18mo. cloth, 2s.

V. THE MEMOIR of the late REV. JOHN HAMIL- TON FORSYTH, M.A., Cm-ate of Weston-super-Mare, and afterwards Minister of Dowry Chapel, CUfton. Edited by the Rev. EDWARD WILSON, M.A., Vicar of Nocton. Third edition. F.cap. With a Portrait. 5s.

VI.

PROBABILITIES : an Aid to Faith. By M. F. TUPPER, D.C.L., ^c, Author of " Proverbial Philoso- phy." Second Edition, Avith notes. Fcap. cloth, -ks.

DATE DUE
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